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A HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



A HISTORY OF 
EDUCATION 



THOMAS DAVIDSON 

AUTHOR OF "ARISTOTLE AND THE ANCIENT EDUCATIONAL IDEALS,' 
ROUSSEAU AND EDUCATION ACCORDING TO NATURE," ETC. 



NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1900 



TWO COPHS HKCB1VED, 

Library of CoicrMtj 
Offlto of tit 

JUN 1 - 1801) 

RogUUr of Copyrlfitt 
SECOND COPY, 



62903 

Copyright, 1900, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



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TROW DIRECTOR . 

PRINTINO AND 600KBINOINO COMRANY 

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PREFACE 

To be strictly accurate, the title of this book should 
have been " A Brief History of Education, as Conscious 
Evolution." To record, even summarily, the facts and 
events in the long history of education, within the nar- 
row limits of a text-book, would have been both impossi- 
ble and undesirable. My endeavor has been to present 
education as the last and highest form of evolution — that 
great process which includes both Nature and Culture. 
I have tried to show what it is that evolves, why it 
evolves, and why evolution, finally attaining to conscious- 
ness, becomes education. Seeing that the immanent pur- 
pose of evolution is the realization of free individuals, 
that is, moral personalities, I have endeavored to mark 
the steps by which this has been gradually attained, and 
to indicate those that have yet to be taken. 

By placing education in relation to the whole process 
of evolution, as its highest form, I have hoped to impart 
to it a dignity which it could hardly otherwise receive or 
claim. From many points of view, the educator's pro- 
fession seems mean and profitless enough, compared with 
those that make more noise in the world; but when it is 
recognized to be the highest phase of the world-process, 
and the teacher to be the chief agent in that process, 
both it and he assume a very different aspect. Then 



VI PKEFACE 

teaching is seen to be the noblest of professions, and 
that which ought to call for the highest devotion and 
enthusiasm. 

In the present work I have given special attention to 
those portions of educational history that are usually 
ignored or neglected, at the expense of those that are 
more generally known. This accounts for the chapter 
on Muslim Education and several others. And I have 
laid somewhat less stress on those portions of the history 
treated in the " Great Educators," issued by the same 
publishers. 

Eeference to the Bibliography will show that I have 
made very little use of previous histories of education. 
The reason of this is, not that I failed to appreciate them, 
but that my aim was different from theirs. 

Some of my generalizations are, I know, open to ques- 
tion. In defence, I have only to say that in all cases I 
have given what seemed to me best calculated to impart 
a comprehensive view of the entire subject. 

The quotations at the head of most of the chapters are 
intended as texts for lectures or discussions. 

Thomas Davidson. 

New York, April 20, 1900. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

BOOK I 
SAVAGE, BARBARIAN, AND CIVIC EDUCATION 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Introductory 1 

II. The Rise of Intelligence 13 

III. Savage Education 18 

IV. Barbarian Education 24 

(A) Ancient Turanian Education . . . .30 

(1) Sumir and Akkad (Chaldaea) . .32 

(2) Egypt 37 

(3) China 41 

(B) Ancient Semitic Education . . . .45 

Babylonia and Assyria . . . .47 

(C) Ancient Aryan Education . . . .55 

(1) India 58 

(2) Iran (Medo-Persia) 66 

V. Civic Education 75 

(1) Judaea 77 

(2) Greece 86 

(3) Rome . 105 



Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS 

BOOK II 
HUMAN EDUCATION 

PASB 

Introductory 115 

DIVISION I.— SUPERNATURAL BEGINNINGS OF 
HUMANISM 

CHAPTER 

I. Hellenistic Education 117 

II. The Christian "Catechetical School" of Alex- 
andria 121 

III. Patristic Education 127 

IV. Muslim Education . . ' 133 

(I.) Propedeutic and Logic 139 

(II.) The Natural Sciences 141 

(III.) The Rational World-Soul . . . .145 

DIVISION II— MEDIAEVAL EDUCATION 

I. Period of Charles the Great 151 

II. Scholasticism and Mysticism 159 

III. The Medieval Unfversities ..... 166 

IV. Renaissance, Reformation, and Counter-Reforma- 

tion 175 

DIVISION HI.— MODERN EDUCATION 

I. The Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Cent- 
uries 190 

II. The Eighteenth Century 209 

III. The Nineteenth Century 220 

IV. The Outlook 254 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 277 

INDEX 283 



BOOK I. 

SAVAGE, BARBARIAN, AND 
CIVIC EDUCATION 



CHAPTEE I. 

INTRODUCTORY 

Desire then in the beginning arose, the first germ of mind. The 
bond betwixt Non-Being and Being, as knowledge, wise men find 
hid in their hearts. — Veda. 

Feeling is a primitive datum. The question, therefore, is not how 
feeling arises, but how it is modified and how it gives birth to sen- 
sation. — Rosmini, New Essay, § 717. 

The Ego which reflects upon itself, finds that, at bottom, it is a 
feeling that constitutes the sentient and intelligent subject. — Ibid., 
§719. 

The sentient subject ... is not deduced from a long train 
of reasoning, but from a simple analysis of the idea of existing sen- 
sation. . . . To conceive an existing sensation is to conceive a 
substance. — Ibid., § 643. 

While philosophers are wrangling over the government of the 
world, Hunger and Love are doing their work. — Schiller. 

It is not in knowledge, as such, but in feeling and action that 
reality is given. — A. Setii, Man's Place in the Cosmos, p. 122. 

Intellectus rerum veraciter ipsae res sunt. — Scotus Eriugena. 

History, as at present understood, is a record of evo- 
lution, which, according to Mr. Spencer, is a " change 
from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, 
coherent heterogeneity, through continuous differentia- 
tions and integrations." Education is conscious or 
voluntary evolution. Hence, History of Education" 
is a record of such evolution, and begins at the point 

1 



2 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

where man takes himself into his own hand, so to speak, 
and seeks to guide his life toward an ever more definite, 
coherent heterogeneity, which is what we mean by his 
ideal end. 

Of the beginning of evolution we have no experi- 
ential knowledge, and, indeed, cannot even imagine it 
as beginning. A popular evolutionist tells us: " The 
earliest condition in which Science allows us to picture 
this globe is that of a fiery mass of nebulous matter. 
At the second stage it consists of countless myriads of 
similar atoms, roughly outlined into a ragged cloud- 
ball, glowing with heat, and rotating in space with in- 
conceivable velocity. By what means can this mass be 
broken up, or broken down, and made into a solid 
world? By two things — mutual attraction and chemical 
affinity. The moment when within the cloud-ball the 
conditions of cooling temperature are such that two 
atoms could combine together, the cause of the evolu- 
tion of the earth was won. . . . With every addi- 
tional atom added, the power, as well as the complexity 
of the combination increases. As the process goes on, 
after endless vicissitudes, repulsions, and readjustments, 
the changes become fewer and fewer, the conflict be- 
tween mass and mass dies down; the elements, passing 
through various stages of liquidity, finally combine in 
the order of their affinities, arrange themselves in the 
order of their densities, and the solid earth is formed. 

" Now, recall the names of the leading actors in this 
stupendous reformation. They are two in number, 
mutual attraction and chemical affinity. Notice these 
words, attraction and affinity. Notice that the great 
formative forces of physical evolution have psychical 



INTRODUCTORY 3 

names. It is idle to discuss whether there is, or can 
be, any identity between the thing represented in the 
one case and in the other. Obviously there cannot be. 
Yet this does not exhaust the interest of the analogy. 
In reality, neither here nor anywhere, have we any 
knowledge whatever of what is actually meant by at- 
traction; nor in the one sphere or the other have we 
even the means of approximating to such knowledge. 
. . . Here, as in every deep recess of physical Nat- 
ure, we are in the presence of that which is metaphysical, 
that which bars the way imperiously at every turn to a 
materialistic interpretation of the world. Yet . . . 
what likeness, even the most remote, could we have ex- 
pected to trace between the gradual aggregation of units 
of matter in the condensation of a weltering star and 
the slow segregation of man in the organization of so- 
cieties and nations? However different the agents, is 
there no suggestion that they are different stages of a 
uniform process, different epochs of one great historic 
enterprise, different results of a single evolutionary 
law?"* 

To the last question we may unhesitatingly answer, 
Yes. We may even go further, and assert that, unless 
we are to be condemned to the author's hopeless agnos- 
ticism, and the evolution of the world is forever to re- 
main a mystery to us, it must be interpreted in terms of 
experience, that is, at bottom, of feeling, including de- 
sire. Nor ought this to surprise us; for, since the world 
of experience — and we can talk intelligently of no other 
— consists of nothing but feelings grouped and classi- 

* Henry Drummond, The Ascent of Man, p. 337 sqq. Cf. Tennyson, 
In Memoriam, cxviii. and Epilogue, near end ; also Vedic Hymn, in 
Max Milller's History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 564. 



4 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

fied, there is every reason for interpreting it in terms 
of feeling. Such interpretation is mere analysis, as it 
ought to be, involving the assumption of nothing out- 
side of experience. If we assume feeling, including 
desire, as the stuff of the world, we have no difficulty 
in explaining evolution upon known principles. There 
can, in the last analysis, be no intelligible active prin- 
ciple but desire; and, since all desire is a tendency to 
greater depth or variety of feeling, it is, of necessity, 
an evolutionary energy. Further, all desire implies the 
existence of something desired, but not possessed, or of 
environment, and so we are forced to conceive of feeling 
as atomic, or individual, in its nature. The world is 
made up of a multitude of what we may call " substan- 
tial feelings," each having all the rest for its environ- 
ment,* and each, through desire, modifying, and being 
modified by, all the rest. The sum of the modifications 
of each substantial feeling by all the rest is its world, 
and the sum of the modifications of all feelings is the 
world. 

How one substantial feeling can become aware of the 
existence of another is a question requiring more de- 
tailed treatment than can be given it here; but that 
each such feeling is completely impervious to all others 
is a fact of hourly experience. By no possibility can I 
feel your toothache, however clearly I may realize it 
in my own imagination. You must always be to me an 
hypothesis (or virocn acres). This is the price we pay 
for our eternal individuality. Nor does it involve ag- 

* We must take care not to imagine that behind the " fundamental 
feelings" (Rosmini's phrase) there is a substance, unpenetrated by feel- 
ing. Such a thing-in-itself, being beyond experience, would open the 
door for a boundless agnosticism. 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

nosticism, but merely the consequence that omniscience 
is a social product, shared in by all beings. 

If we adopt this view of the constitution of the world, 
a view accordant with all experience, we see at once that 
all evolution is, in a sense, education. It is the gradual 
internal differentiation of substantial feelings, their 
transformation or articulation, through mutual desire 
and interaction, into worlds. Education, in the widest 
sense, may be defined as the upbuilding of a world in 
feeling or in consciousness. With our present habit of 
confining feeling to the animal world, and making it 
include a certain amount of memory or consciousness, 
we find it hard to regard the inanimate mineral world, 
and even the animate vegetable world, as due to the in- 
teraction of feelings. Yet all that they are to us is so 
much feeling — so many clusters of sensation — and, un- 
less we are to attribute the introduction of life to a 
miracle, and acknowledge the bankruptcy of science, 
we must regard the very lowest forms of matter as, to 
a certain extent, alive and sentient. One thing is ob- 
vious: except in so far as they are feelings, we can 
never know anything about them. And what could 
they be in or for themselves, that is, apart from our 
knowledge of them, if they were not feelings? 

If this reasoning is correct, then the entire evolution 
of the world, from lowest to highest, is simply the ex- 
ternal aspect of the education of substantial feelings, 
or, to use a familiar term, of spirits. It is true, indeed, 
that actual experience has not enabled us to supply all 
the links in the long chain. Especially desiderated are 
the links between the inanimate and the animate, and 
between instinctive and ethical life. Yet we need not 



6 THE niSTORY OF EDUCATION 

despair of one day discovering these. Of the former, 
Huxley, a sober witness, says: " With organic chemistry, 
molecular physics, and physiology yet in their infancy, 
and every day making prodigious strides, I think it 
would be the height of presumption for any man to say 
that the conditions under which matter assumes the 
properties we call ' vital ' may not, some day, be arti- 
ficially brought together. . . . If it were given me 
to look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time 
to the still more remote period when the earth, was 
passing through physical and chemical changes, which 
it can no more see again than a man can recall his in- 
fancy, I should expect to be a witness of the evolution 
of living protoplasm from not living matter." * Of the 
second missing link I shall speak further on. 

One more quotation from Huxley! " If there is one 
thing clear about the progress of modern science, it is 
the tendency to reduce all scientific problems, except 
those which are purely mathematical, to questions of 
molecular physics — that is to say, to the attractions, 
repulsions, motions, and co-ordination of the ultimate 
particles of matter. Social phenomena are the result of 
interaction of the components of society, or men, with 
one another and the surrounding universe." f Huxley 
had to remain an agnostic (to use a word of his own 
invention) to the end of his days. The reason why he 
did so is plain from the above quotation. He main- 
tained that all scientific problems, not strictly mathe- 

* Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Revieivs, p. 366. How something living 
can evolve from something not-living is utterly inconceivable, implying 
creation. Huxley {ibid., p. 146) tells us that "matter may be regarded 
as a form of thought," which is hardly correct. 

iJbld., p. 166. 



INTRODUCTORY 7 

matical, must be solved in terms of the relations of the 
ultimate elements of matter, and then most gratuitously 
assumed that these elements were "particles." But 
such particles do not come within the reach of experi- 
ence, and, if they did, they could only be groups of 
feelings. Hence, the ultimate elements of matter are 
feelings. Let us, then, substitute " feelings " for " par- 
ticles " in the quotation, and we at once do away with 
the possibility of agnosticism, and obtain a formula 
which accounts for evolution, from first to last — even 
for the mathematical aspect of it. We may now write: 
All scientific problems may be reduced to the attrac- 
tions, repulsions, motions, and co-ordination of the ul- 
timate substantial feelings. Even social phenomena are 
the result of the interaction of the components of society, 
of men (who are merely substantial feelings highly dif- 
ferentiated through long and extensive interaction), 
with one another and with the remaining universe of 
substantial feelings of all grades. In other words, all 
the world that Ave know, or can know, consists of 
primitive substantial feelings, differentiating themselves, 
through interaction, into worlds. The voluntary or 
reflective part of this differentiation we call education. 
It is fortunate that there exist now, in the world, 
beings at all stages of evolution, from matter up to man, 
and that the latter is the sum and epitome of the en- 
tire process thus far. In spite of this, we find it very 
difficult to realize the exceedingly simple psychical life 
of the primal elements of inorganic matter, and even 
of organic bodies of low type— plants, microbes, snails, 
etc. The attractions and repulsions, resulting in the 
motions and co-ordinations of material molecules, we 



8 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

can conceive only as due to the desires of spirits, and 
yet we cannot throw ourselves back into their inner 
states. The case is not very different with plant life. 
Who can realize the feelings and desires of those primal 
elements which build up an oak or a vine? Yet wo 
can hardly doubt that a feeling of thirst is what makes 
a plant send out its root-mouths in the direction of 
water, and a feeling of weakness what induces it to 
encircle a support with its tendril-arms. So, in gen- 
eral, perhaps, we may interpret the actions of plants in 
terms of our own feelings. And this we can do more 
securely in the case of animals. No one can well doubt 
that a monkey, a dog, a rabbit, a tadpole, or an 'amoeba 
eats, drinks, and moves in consequence of feelings simi- 
lar to ours when we do the same. Thus we are able, in 
ways more or less vague, to realize to ourselves those 
sentient desires which are the agents in all evolution, 
and so, to that extent, to understand the world. It 
may be that, in the future, through hypnotism or some 
such agency, we shall be able to recall into conscious- 
ness the entire course of past evolution. 

Evolution, then, is the material of science, including 
history, and of philosophy. In the future, philosophy 
will not, as in the past, imitate theology in trying to 
dictate to science from without, but will be simply the 
complete record of which the particular sciences are the 
co-ordinated parts.* Even now philosophy is able to 
tell us that all evolution is a matter of association for 
the satisfaction of desire, f that the universe is essentially 

* Philosophy is completely unified knowledge. Spencer, First Prin- 
ciples, Pt. II., cap. 1, §37. 

tSee Aristotle, Politics, I., 1; 1252a seq.; Ethics, I., 1; 1094a seq.; 
and cf. Dante, Purg., X., XI. 



INTRODUCTORY 9 

social; that the evolution of sentient individuals into 
an ever richer world depends upon ever widening and 
deepening relations to other sentient individuals; that 
socialism and individualism are absolutely co-extensive 
all the world over. What is true of human society is 
true of all nature; and the principles which we find 
governing the former we may confidently look for in 
the latter. The true meaning of the lowest phases of 
evolution can be found only in the highest, just as the 
meaning of the acorn can be found only in the full- 
grown oak.* The first step will not be fully under- 
stood until the last is taken, which will never be! 

Taking human society, then, as the highest type of 
all association, we can readily see that it has three pos- 
sible forms, and no moref — (1) co-ordination or democ- 
racy, (2) individual superordination, or monarchy, and 
(3) a combination of the two, oligarchy. The bodies in 
the mineral world seem to be democracies, no atom or 
individual being lord over another; and the same is 
true, to a certain extent, of the plant world. Many of 
the lower forms of animal life — worms, protozoa, ccel- 
enterates, etc., are oligarchies; % but the higher w r e go in 
the scale the more nearly do the forms approach the 
condition of monarchy. In man, the sentient elements 
composing the body are in almost entire subjection to 
the central sentience which he calls himself. § Where 
there is no rebellion, we have a man of integrity, an 
integer; otherwise, a dissolute or fractional man. But 

* In Aristotelian language, the oak is the " what-it-was-ness " (to ti 
fiv elvai) of the acorn. See Metaph., Z., 4 ; 1030a, 17, with Bonitz's note. 

t See Aristotle, Politics, III., 7 ; 1279a, 22 seq. 

X Rosmini, Psychology, § 462 seq. Geddes and Thomson, Evolution of 
Sex, Chapp. VII., XIV. 

§ Shakespeare, Sonnet CXLVI. 



10 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

even in a completely integral body, monarchical as a 
bee-hive, there are arrangements for swarming, or col- 
onizing. Certain subordinate combinations, which we 
call reproductive cells, sunder themselves naturally from 
the whole, and, carrying with them its potentialities, 
set up a new monarchy, a new human body, for them- 
selves. In the case of these, the process of evolution, 
which originally took millions upon millions of years, 
is completed in a few prenatal months. Thus, through 
beneficent association, every animal organism is able to 
raise subordinate organisms, of almost the lowest form, 
to its own level in a short time, and thus spare them 
uncounted ages of evolutionary struggle. It is no se- 
cret at the present day that the human embryo, before 
birth, goes through the whole process, of evolution, as- 
suming, in an ascending series, all the lower forms of 
animal life, just as, after birth, it passes through all the 
phases of ethical life. It is all one continuous process, 
producing ever more complete and independent indi- 
viduals, through ever deepening and widening social re- 
lations. Here come in the great questions of heredity 
and habituation. 

If, now, we ask how, out of primitive desiderant feel- 
ings, the various types of animal life — microbes, mol- 
lusks, whales, men — have arisen, we readily find an 
intelligible answer, supported by obvious facts, and at 
the same time full of meaning for the educator. As we 
have already seen, the primitive desiderant feelings, 
whose interaction evolves the world and explains it, 
have two aspects — a passive (feeling) and an active (de- 
sire). In the lowest phases of existence these are com- 
pletely balanced, a fact which we express by saying that, 



INTRODUCTORY 11 

in physics, action and reaction are always, equal. But, 
just in proportion as we rise in the scale of being, and 
reaction becomes less and less immediate, this balance 
disappears. Indeed, we may perhaps say that the posi- 
tion of beings in that scale is determined by their power 
to inhibit direct reaction and to treasure up their passive 
impressions for future use, such treasuring-up being the 
origin of consciousness. Consciousness is, from one 
point of view, inhibited reaction. So long as impres- 
sions are treasured up, solely with a view to purposive 
future reactions, the balance between action and reac- 
tion may still be kept even, and this is the only healthy 
condition of things; but it may also become uneven, 
either because impressions are treasured up for the mere 
pleasure they give, or because the reactions are excessive 
or purposeless. In the former case, we have a stagnant, 
dalliant sensuality; in the latter, a fatuous, spasmodic 
activity. Both these are equally unfavorable to evolu- 
tion, the one producing beings of the Caliban, the other, 
beings of the Ariel, type.* Just as the perfect balance 
between passive feeling and active desire keeps open the 
path of evolution, so the loss of this balance blocks it, 
and gives rise to all the sub-human, unprogressive forms 
of life, and to all those types of humanity — savages, 
barbarians, heathens f — that have fallen, or are falling, 
behind in the race of life. If a house divided against 
itself cannot stand, so a living being whose nature is 
out of balance cannot progress — a fact of no small con- 

*See The Tempest. It is quite evident that Caliban and Ariel are 
meant, respectively, as types of sensuality and caprice. Ferdinand and 
Miranda are balanced progressive types. 

+ "EBvikoL, peoples who, though civilized, have not risen above national 
or race interests. The future belongs to peoples who have risen to hu- 
man interests. 



12 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

sequence to educators. Many living types have died out 
from mere inner disharmony or one-sided evolution.* 
Man has risen above the brute condition simply because 
he has been able to hold the balance between feeling 
and action comparatively even, and his further advance 
will depend upon how far he is able to do this in the 
future. Though, from one point of view, he stands 
over against, or above, nature, f in another, he is merely 
its highest product. In order to explain him, its entire 
process is required, and this can be learnt only through 
scientific investigation. " To ingenious attempts at ex- 
plaining by the light of reason things which want the 
light of history to show their meaning, much of the 
learned nonsense of the world has indeed been due." \ 

* Tennyson, In Memor., LV., LVL, OXVIII. 

t By "nature," I, of course, mean, not a power standing outside and 
above the individuals whose interactions produce the world, but merely 
the sum and system of those interactions themselves. It is unfortunate 
that, in our time, Nature (with a capital) is often spoken of as if it were 
God, minus consciousness. 

JTylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. I., pp. 19seq. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE RISE OF INTELLIGENCE 

Under what circumstances, and how long ago, man 
first rose above the brute, we cannot at present say. 
That the event may have been sudden, like an avalanche, 
or the turning of a balance, is quite possible; that it 
took place many millions of years ago seems certain. 
In the course of that long period, certain portions of 
the race — those which have kept open the path of evo- 
lution — have passed through the stages of (1) Savagery, 
(2) Barbarism, (3) Civicism or Civilization, and are now 
advancing to (4) Humanism — while the rest have re- 
mained behind, some at each of the lower stages. Now, 
since each of these stages has its corresponding educa- 
tion, the History of Education naturally falls into 
four divisions: (1) savage, (2) barbarian, (3) civic, (4) 
human. We shall treat them in this order; but before 
doing so, we must outline the leading features of each 
of the divisions, and, first of all, state the principles 
according to which they are distinguished. 

Though the grades of humanization pass, for the most 
part, insensibly into each other, yet, regarded from a 
sufficient distance, they are readily distinguishable. 
The scale upon which all evolution is measured is simply 
that of being. That which is more is higher than that 

13 



14 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

which is less. Now, since, as we have seen, being is 
feeling, or desiderant feeling, it follows that that which 
has (or, rather, is) more, and more highly differentiated, 
feeling and desire, is higher than that which has less. 
And we may perhaps set it down that the body of every 
living being fairly represents the amount and articula- 
tion of its, desiderant feeling; for, as Spenser says, 
" The soul is form, and doth the body make." 

Here is offered a favorable opportunity for withdraw- 
ing the clumsy expression, " desiderant feeling," and 
substituting for it the ordinary term, " soul," which, 
when carefully examined, proves to have just that mean- 
ing. Soul is the fundamental, substantial feeling and 
desire, of which all other feelings and desires, and, 
ultimately, the known world itself, are determinations or 
articulations. My world is nothing but my self or soul 
— the feeling which I am — modified and articulated. 
We shall see later what is implied in such articulation. 
One group of such articulations is the body, a system 
of subordinate feelings, by which the soul carries out 
further articulations and produces its world. If the 
view here taken of the soul be correct, then the much 
vexed question of the immortality of the soul becomes 
almost ridiculous. Can that of which all things in time 
and space, and these themselves, are but modifications, 
vanish in time? So long as feeling and desire continue 
, merely such, so long the soul which they constitute 
remains in a brute condition, without any world of 
things.* It is only when, under the pressure of com- 
plicated and unmanageable experience, they give birth 
to intelligence and will, themselves remaining in the 

*See Aristotle, ITetajifnjs., I., 1 ; 9S0b, 25 seq. 



THE KISE OF INTELLIGENCE 15 

form of love,* that the soul emerges from this condi- 
tion, and begins to have a world of things, with lan- 
guage to designate them by. It is then that it begins 
to be human. Intelligence is simply the grouping of 
feelings and the referring of them, as so grouped, to 
origins, or subjects, or things. Thinking is, in the 
strictest sense, thing-ing.f Until there are things, 
there are no thoughts, and vice versa. As soon as things 
are thought J and symbolized, then desire, taking the 
form of will, relates itself to them as means, or instru- 
ments, of satisfaction — the only possible end. Since 
subjects, or things, can never be matters of experience, 
but are, so to speak, hypotheses,§ to group experience 
for use as means, they can be realized only through 
symbols or conventions, || and of such language consists. 
All words originally designated things, that is, hypo- 
thetical agents, uniting and causing certain groups of 
experiences. What corresponds internally to the outered 
or uttered word is the concept, or grasping-together of 
experiences (Begriff), a combining act of the soul, 
capable of indefinite repetition. 

In emerging from the brute state, then, man found 

* We thus see why love is never quite rational, though it constantly 
tends to become so. 

" To be wise and love 
Exceeds man's might ; that dwells with gods above." 

Troilus and Cressida, III., 2. 

tCf. Ger. denken, Ding ; Latin reor, res ; Greek xp*<-> (declare), xpw«- 
In Hebrew, dabhar means both thought and thing. Cf. Arabic shay 
(thing), from shot a (desire). 

X In the second Prologue to Faust, the Lord says to the archangels : 
"The Becoming (i.e., genesis, evolution), which ever works and lives, 
embrace you with love's gracious bounds ; and what hovers in unsteady 
seeming, do ye make steady with enduring thoughts." Nothing could be 
finer ! 

§ "Hypothesis" (un-o(W<.«) means exactly the same as "subject" (snb- 
jecturri). 

| Su^oAof, convention, watch-word, creed. 



16 THE HISTOEY OF EDUCATION 

himself a thinking, loving, willing being, in a world 
of concrete things or beings, grasped by means of sym- 
bols and available as instruments of satisfaction. In 
other words, he found himself a symbol-making, aim- 
setting, tool-using animal. The symbol-making power 
which gave him his present, real world enabled him to 
project into the future a more satisfactory, ideal world; 
his aim-setting faculty, love, turned this into an object 
of aspiration; and his tool-using gift made him employ 
the present world as a means for realizing it.* Such 
has been, and is, the life of man. In the first stages of 
his career, his world, his aims, and his tools were meagre; 
but as he advanced they became richer. This increasing 
richness coincides with the progress of civilization. 

In distinguishing the grades of civilization, then, and 
the corresponding forms of education, we must consider, 
at different stages, (1) man's actual world, (2) his ideal 
world, (3) the manner and degree in which he uses the 
former for the realization of the latter. The first will 
give us his science; the second, his art; the third, his 
ethics, corresponding, respectively, to the True, the 
Beautiful, and the Good. The True is what man holds 
to be; the Beautiful (or desirable), what he holds ought 
to be;f the Good, the choice and use of the proper means 
for passing from the True to the Beautiful. The Beau- 
tiful, when realized, becomes the True, which again 
makes way for a higher Beautiful. It is plain from this 
that education, at each stage, falls into three branches: 
(1) Education in the formation of an actual world, (2) 

* He holds even the sun and moon to be made for his use. See Gen. I., 
14, and cf. the opening chapter of the Sentence* of Peter the Lombard, 
in which the present world is treated as means. 

t " Beauty is its own excuse for being. " — Emerson. 



THE RISE OF INTELLIGENCE 17 

Education in the conception of an ideal world, (3) Edu- 
cation in the method of using the former for the realiza- 
tion of the latter. 

If man's faculties always developed evenly and har- 
moniously, the history of civilization and education 
would be easy to write; but since, as we have seen, this 
is not the case; since there is much one-sided develop- 
ment, and consequent retardation or retrogression, much 
variety and difficulty are introduced into the task. As 
affording practical lessons, the history of retarded or 
frustrated developments is as valuable as that of healthy 
or normal ones. The lower grades of civilization are 
very similar all the world over;* but as we advance the 
number of aberrations increases. Hence, while we can 
treat savage education in a single chapter, each of the 
higher grades will require several. 

* " One set of savages is like another," said Dr. Johnson, and this is 
largely confirmed by modern research. See Tylor, Primitive Culture, 
Vol. I. , pp. 6 seq. 



CHAPTEE III. 

SAVAGE EDUCATION 

In the instinctive act all is hereditary ; in the reflective act there 
is nothing hereditary ; everything is derived through imitation, or 
taught by experience. — Panizzi, Le Tre Leggi, p. 57. 

It is certain that man attains his position of pre-eminence above 
all other animals . . . essentially through the fact that he is 
able to produce, that is, by his labor to transform that which in 
nature is useless into things useful and fit for consumption. — Ibid., 
p- 74- 

Sacramental words, according to Catholic doctrine, are words of 
power. — Sydney F. Smith, S.J., in Contemporary Review, January, 
1897, p. 35. 

In all stages of civilization the human being " comes 
into the world," not as a naked soul, or sensibility, but 
with an organized body, and with its feeling and desire 
correspondingly organized in the form of senses and 
spontaneities. It is the function of education to train 
these, so that he may attain the greatest possible satis- 
faction or harmony. This harmony, the essential con- 
dition of evolution, is twofold, harmony among his 
faculties and harmony with his environments,* sub- 
human and human. The chief influence in the training 
of the human faculties is Imitation,! or, viewed from 
the other side, Example, which, as culture advances, 

* On these harmonies see Plato, Sep ublic. 

t See Baldwin, Mental Development, Chapp. IX. -XII. 

18 



SAVAGE EDUCATION 19 

gives way to Precept or Instruction. At the savage 
stage, education is mainly imitation, becoming, with 
time, more and more conscious, but never requiring any 
special institution or school for its impartment. 

Man, as we have seen, in building up a world through, 
and for, intelligence and will, does so by grouping his 
feelings or experiences into things, or objects, through 
concepts, or ideas,* which he fixes and holds by means 
of symbols. These symbols play so important a part 
in the growth of intelligence that they deserve careful 
consideration. They are, namely, of two kinds, (1) 
audible, (2) visible. The former go to constitute lan- 
guage; the latter, religion. Thus language and religion 
have a common root, and are as old as the dawning of 
intelligence. We may, indeed, say that all primitive 
thought is religious or superstitious. 

It is difficult for us, moderns, to realize how concept 
and sensible symbol were related to each other in the 
mind of the savage. We may perhaps say that, for him, 
the symbol, instead of representing the object, contained 
its essence or concept. Hence the extreme importance 
attached by him to the audible word and the visible 
fetich. f In uttering the name of a thing, he was breath- 
ing forth its essence, for good or for evil; in adoring 
or anointing a fetich, he was controlling its essence. J 

* These ideas are simply distinctions in feeling. 

tSuch fetich might be natural or artificial. Art owes its origin to the 
endeavor to make natural fetiches conform to the concepts contained in 
them. It is interesting to note that the word shem, in the language of 
the Hebrews, who have carried the religious stage of thought to its high- 
est perfection, means (1) essence, (2) name, (3) monument or fetich. See 
the Third Commandment, and cf. Deut. XII. 5 ; 1 Kings VIII. 16, 19 ; 
Is. LV. 13 etc.; also Westcott, Epist.. of St. John, pp. 243-45; Schrader, 
Cuneiform Inscriptions, Vol. I., p. 4, note* (Eng. Trans.). 

JCf. Tylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. I., pp. 115 seq., and last quotation 
at the head of this chapter. 



20 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION" 

Herein we have the original form of worship, namely, 
magic, made up of incantation and ritual. The distinc- 
tion of essence, concept, and symbol has been one of 
the hardest tasks of intelligence. 

Though savage education, as not being conscious evo- 
lution, might properly be excluded from treatment in 
this book, it may, nevertheless, be briefly considered, on 
the ground that it shows, in their primitive form, the 
two departments of all education — education with refer- 
ence to the seen and education with reference to the un- 
seen, or, roughly speaking, practical education and 
theoretical education. The savage divides his activities 
between work and worship. Through both he seeks 
the satisfaction of his desires, which at first are but two 
— hunger and love. Under the former we include all 
those physical desires that have reference only to the 
individual himself — thirst, desire for clothing, shelter, 
rest, etc.; under the latter, those that have reference 
to other individuals — desires for self-reproduction, the 
pleasures of family life, etc. The former is the source 
of all the egoistic or selfish feelings; the latter, of all 
the altruistic or neighborly feelings. By work, the 
primitive man seeks to satisfy the hunger (denned as 
above) of himself and family; by worship, to guard 
them against danger from those powers which he imag- 
ines as lying behind the phenomena, but against which 
his own strength is unavailing. The rule of work forms 
the basis of ethics, which culminate in politics and 
cosmopolitics; the presuppositions of worship form the 
basis of religion, and, later on, of art, science, and phi- 
losophy. In work, man uses things; in worship, the 
essences or " names " of things. The former are always 



SAVAGE EDUCATION 21 

individual; the latter, always universal. The visible 
stone, or tree, is confined within its own limits; the es- 
sence, or name, within the stone or tree has far-reaching 
influence. When this distinction is clearly drawn, the 
essence is supposed to be able to pass from thing to 
thing, e.g., from a human body into a stone; and, later 
on, to be capable of subsisting by itself, and moving 
from place to place. Thus arises the notion of disem- 
bodied essences or ghosts. One can even make an es- 
sence pass into a thing by pronouncing its " name " 
over it; hence the practice of consecration. When 
essences are conceived as connected with large portions 
of nature — sky, sea, earth, sun, moon — they become 
gods. 

Savage education, then, consists in learning how to 
obtain the necessaries of life for self and family, and how 
to propitiate the unseen powers supposed to be active 
in nature. In his efforts after the former the savage 
learns the use of tools and means, and is thus clearly 
distinguished from the lower animals. He also learns 
to manufacture tools and means from wood, stone, clay, 
bone, wool, fibre, and hides. Of the use of the metals 
and of fire he knows nothing. His affections are con- 
fined to the members of his family or tribe, and to those 
things upon which he depends for his well-being — cat- 
tle, dogs, etc. — and the spirits of his ancestors. All these, 
indeed, are considered members of the tribe, bound to- 
gether by blood-ties,* the only ties he knows. To him, 

* To strengthen these ties, some member of the tribe — a man. or an 
animal — is killed from time to time, and his, or its, flesh and blood par- 
taken of by all the other members, the ancestral ghosts receiving their 
portion in the form of blood poured upon the stone or other object into 
which their essence is supposed to have passed. This is the origin of 
sacrifice, which originally has nothing to do with propitiation. See 
Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 236 seq. 



22 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

kin and friend, non-kin and enemy, are synonymous 
terms.* His will is trained to run in definite conven- 
tional ruts, and is hardly ever exercised in original ways. 
Indeed, the savage, despite his apparent liberty, is, in 
almost every sense, a slave — a slave to his own needs and 
to dread of unseen powers. Even in the use of material 
things he has no freedom; for he is continually afraid 
of offending the essences contained in them. Hence he 
wastes his time in the performance of all sorts of pro- 
pitiatory rites, and, after all, does not get rid of fear.f 

Though there are many grades of savagery, J and the 
line between it and barbarism is not clearly denned, yet 
its chief characteristics may be enumerated. Savages 
learn to use things, but rarely forces; hence their chief 
implements and vessels are of wood, stone, or clay, 
which can be shaped without fire. They devour their 
food without cooking, and, being nomads, live either in 
natural caves or in temporary huts. Their arts are con- 
fined to the manufacture of hunting and fishing imple- 
ments, earthen vessels, and clothing. In the ornamen- 
tation of these they sometimes show rudiments of an 
artistic sense. They acknowledge no social tie but the 
blood tie; hence, their highest form of organization is 
the ''sib," family, or clan. They are governed by use 

* In Scotland, even to-day " freen 1 " quite often means kin. 

+ For many ages this fear prevented savages from applying fire to 
human uses. It was held to be divine and inviolable, and the story of 
Prometheus' theft of it from heaven, and of the vengeance which pursued 
him, is merely an echo of the feelings which followed this application. 
In the religion of Zoroaster, the same fear of polluting fire exists even at 
the present day. See Frazer, The Golden Bough, 2)assim. 

X These depend largely upon climate. In warm regions, where hunger 
can be satisfied without labor or implements, and clothing and shelter 
are hardly needed, men rise but little above the higher brutes. It is in 
ruder climates, where "necessity is the mother of invention," that they 
rise higher. Grade of invention marks grade of culture. 



SAVAGE EDUCATION 23 

and wont, not having reached that degree of abstraction 
and generalization which would enable them to formu- 
late laws. It follows that free individualism has no 
place among them. Their religion, which is also their 
science, is animism, or a belief in essences of a ghostly 
sort, pervading all nature; consequently, their worship 
consists of magical ceremonies, intended to propitiate 
these. In such circumstances it is easy to see that their 
whole education is obtained through imitation, or use 
and wont — <Tvv>]6eia, as the Greeks said. The further 
progress of culture consists in the gradual evolution of 
the individual, that is, his emancipation from use and 
wont. 



CHAPTER IV. 

BARBAEIAN EDUCATION 

Listen to the woes of mortals, and how I raised them from their 
former infantile condition to reason and intelligence. ... At 
first, seeing, they saw in vain, and, hearing, they heard not; but 
like to the forms of dreams, they thoughtlessly, for long ages, con- 
fused everything, knowing nothing of brick-built houses exposed 
to the sun, or of working in wood, but dwelling underground, like 
puny ants, in the sunless depths of caves. They had no token of 
winter, of flowery spring, or of fruitful summer, but acted alto- 
gether without reflection, until I at last showed them the risings of 
the stars, and their settings, hard to discern. Moreover, I discovered 
for them number, the highest of artifices, and the combinations of 
letters, the muse-mothered instrument for the recording of all 
things. And I first bound great beasts to yokes, making them sub- 
mit to collars and to carrying (human) bodies, so that they might be 
bearers of men's greatest burdens. And I brought horses under the 
chariot-rein — a monument to superfluous luxury. And none other 
than I invented the sea-wandering, canvas-winged vehicles of 
sailors. . . . Greatest (discovery) of all, if anyone fell sick, 
there was no remedy in the form of either food or ointment or 
drink; but they pined away for lack of medicines, until I showed 
them mixtures of soothing remedies, whereby they ward off all dis- 
eases. Many forms of divination too I arranged, and I was the 
first to distinguish among dreams those destined to become a wak- 
ing vision, and expounded to them mysterious sounds. Omens on 
journeys, and the flight of crooked-taloned birds I clearly defined, 
showing which are lucky in their nature, and which unlucky, what 
are the habits of each, and what their mutual hates, loves, and con- 
claves ; moreover the smoothness of entrails and the color they 
must have to be pleasing to the gods, and the manifold lucky forms 
of the gall-bladder. And having roasted limbs wrapt in fat and the 

24 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 25 

long chine, I guided men to a mysterious art. And I gave sight to 
the flame-symbols that formerly were blind. So much for things 
above ground. And as to the human aids hidden underground — 
brass, iron, silver, gold — who would claim to have discovered them 
before me ? No one, I am sure, who did not wish to babble in vain. 
In one brief saw, learn the whole at once : All human arts are from 
Prometheus. — iEscHYLUs, Prometheus Bound, 11. 450 seq. 

The principal criteria of classification (of grades of culture) are 
the absence or presence, high or low development, of the industrial 
arts, especially metal-working, manufacture of implements and ves- 
sels, agriculture, architecture, etc., the extent of scientific knowl- 
edge, the definiteness of moral principles, the condition of religious 
belief and ceremony, the degree of social and political organiza- 
tion, and so forth. — Tylok, Primitive Culture, Vol. I., pp. 27 seq. 

Human culture advances in proportion as men hus- 
band their powers by the use of implements, and by 
union for mutual help. Such husbandry demands ever 
higher and higher education. 

The barbarian, as distinguished from the savage, 
stage of culture, begins at the point where men learn to 
control natural forces — fire, water, wind — and to apply 
them directly to the satisfaction of their own desires. 
So long, of course, as these forces were regarded as 
governed by essences susceptible of influence through 
magical rites, so long they eluded man; and it required 
a certain impiety, that is, an advance from the religious 
to the scientific attitude, to enable him to apply them 
fearlessly to his own uses. How such advance was at 
first regarded we learn from such stories as those of 
Cain and Abel,* Prometheus,! etc. 

* See Lenormant, The Beginnings of History, Chap. IV. ("The 
Fratricide and the Foundation of the First City "). 

+ On the origin and meaning of this world-myth see Kuhn, Die Herab- 
kunft des Feuers. Prometheus does not come from Pramantha, as he 
supposes. 



26 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The great event which carried men over from sav- 
agery to barbarism was what we may call the desecration 
of fire — the stealing of it from heaven, as the Greeks 
said. Through this men were enabled to do three 
things: (1) to cook their food, (2) to smelt metals and 
shape tools of them, (3) with these tools to engage in 
many arts previously impossible — to quarry and dress 
stone, and with it to build houses and towns;* to turn 
up the soil and engage in agriculture; to improve their 
weapons of offence and defence; or, in one word, they 
were enabled to pass from nomadic to settled life. The 
new arts called for a division of labor unknown before, 
and for a new education. Thus men came to be divided 
into trades or gilds, each of which gave special instruc- 
tion in its own art. The earliest form of conscious in- 
struction was gild-instruction, of which apprenticeship 
is a modern survival. 

If in savagery human desire was articulated into but 
few needs, and these capable of direct satisfaction, in 
barbarism this articulation was enormously increased, 
and life became greatly complicated. There now super- 
venes division of labor, which weakens the blood-tie by 
bringing into close relations persons having a common 
occupation, and by establishing a professional tie, to 
which is soon added a local one. Miners, smiths, car- 
penters, etc., form associations and dwell in the same 
localities. In agricultural districts the very soil forms 
a social bond. Among the earliest social distinctions is 
that' between those that occupy themselves with the 

* Town (A-S. tun, Ger. Zaun) means, properly, enclosure. Towns 
were originally mere places of refuge, or castles. It was only when in- 
crease of culture brought increase of danger that they became towns, in 
our sense. 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 27 

seen and those that occupy themselves with the unseen 
— between laity and priests, as we should say. Then 
conies, in the laity, the distinction between those who, 
by their labor, supply the necessities of life, and those 
who devo-te themselves to defence, or between the in- 
dustrial and military classes. Thus there arise the 
three social castes — priests, soldiers, producers. In each 
of these again there are subdivisions. The priests di- 
vide into propitiators or sacrificers* and soothsayers or 
prophets;! the soldiers into privates and officers, the 
chief of whom is king; the producers into as many 
professions as there are useful arts. No sooner are these 
three classes fairly distinguished than there springs up 
between them a rivalry for power. In the ensuing con- 
flict the third class generally succumbs, sinking into a 
position of inferiority, and even of servility, while the 
conflict goes on between the other two. Three results 
are possible. The victory may rest either (1) with the 
priests, who will rule by superstitious fear, as in India,! 
or (2) with the soldiers, who will rule by force, as in 
Assyria,§ or (3) with the two combined, as in Egypt. || 
Each class now receives a distinct education, suited to 
its functions, and always through gilds. As yet there 
is no education for manhood or citizenship. Man, 
being still a means, a mere limb of the social body, 



_ * Sacrifice, from being a tribal meal, intended to strengthen the blood- 
tie, gradually becomes a means of satisfying or propitiating the invisible 
members of the tribe, and, later on, of other demons and gods. See p. 21, 
note, and cf . Robertson Smith, Itelig. of the Semites, pp. 196 seq. ; David- 
son, Education of the Greek People, p. 33. 

t See Wellhausen, Reste arab. Heidenthums, pp. 128 seq. 

% See Frazer, Lit. Hist, of India, pp. 148-69. 

§ See Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, Vol. I., pp. 241 seq. 

I See Sayce, Egypt of the Hebrews, pp. 53 seq. 



28 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION" 

is educated for subordination and function, not for 
freedom. 

Perhaps the most important result of the division of 
society into professional castes is the rise of a leisured 
class — the priests, who, as mediators of the unseen, are 
the founders of all the " liberal " arts and sciences. As 
their power is due mainly to their success in convincing 
the other classes of the influence of the unseen upon 
human affairs, they are compelled, with a view to fore- 
casting the future, to observe the course of these and 
to keep a record of their past experiences. Thus they 
come to study astronomy and meteorology, and to in- 
vent writing. Having discovered the influence of the 
sun, moon, and stars upon the seasons, they often ex- 
tend this influence to other things, and so give rise to 
the pseudo-science of astrology. Nevertheless, with 
recorded observation the basis of science is laid. 

Next to the discovery of fire, the invention of writing 
was the most important event in barbarian culture. 
The one made the arts, the other the sciences, possible. 
At first, all writing was pictorial, representing, not 
sounds, but things. It was by a very slow process, last- 
ing for thousands of years, that it became phonetic. 
Picture-writing, being necessarily cumbersome and, at 
best, requiring an interpreter, called into existence 
gilds of professional scribes — Schriftgelehrte, as the 
Germans say — who not only wrote, but likewise kept 
alive the meaning of old writings. These gilds, which 
were closely connected with the priesthood, kept records, 
on stone or burnt clay,* not only of astronomical and 

* On stone (later on papyrus) in Egypt, on clay in the nations of the 
Euphrates Valley. On the earliest writing see Fr. Delitzsch, Die Ent- 
stehung des aelteslcn tichrij'tsystems. 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 29 

meteorological, but also of historical, occurrences, and, 
after a time, began to write down incantations, prayers, 
laws, and poems. All such records were carefully pre- 
served in libraries connected with the temples, and were 
read by the scribes on solemn occasions.* Reading was 
by no means yet a popular accomplishment. Thus it 
came to pass that the priests were the depositaries of 
all learning, and the temples the schools, f It naturally 
followed that all education was theological, concerning 
itself with the essences or spirits underlying phenomena. 
This involved a serious drawback, the cause of much 
superstition. The barbarian mind was not content with 
defining the essences by their known acts, but endowed 
them with all sorts of human attributes, passions, 
capricious will, etc., whereby they were turned into 
arbitrary beings, requiring to be flattered and propiti- 
ated. J This may be said to be the distinguishing mark 
of barbarian culture, which, however, it long survived. 
Several ancient nations may be taken as representing 
barbarian culture. We shall confine ourselves to six: 
(1) Sumir and Akkad, (2) Egypt, (3) China, (4) Baby- 
lonia and Assyria, (5) India, (6) Media and Persia. 
Modern ethnologists and philologists divide the peoples 
that have risen above savagery into three families: (1) 

A 

the Turanian, (2) the Semitic, (3) the Aryan, which 
appeared upon the stage of history successively in this 
order. § Adopting this division, we may say that Sumir, 

* See 2 Kings XXII., XXIII. ; Nehemiah VIII. 

+ In Muslim lands, even at the present day, schools and universities 
are nearly always in mosques. Cf. Matth. XXVI. 55 ; Acts V. 25, 
etc. 

X See the prayer of Chryses, Homer, Iliad., I., 37-42, and mark its mer- 
cenary implications. 

§See Max Miiller, Lect. on the Science of Language, First Ser. 



30 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Akkad, Egypt,* and China are Turanian; Babylonia 
and Assyria, Semitic; and India, Media, and Persia, 
Aryan. These three families on the whole represent 
three different stages of culture within barbarism itself. 
So far as we know, the Turanians were the founders of 
barbarian culture, the first astronomers, the inventors 
of writing. 

(A) Ancient Tukanian Education 

While there is a very striking similarity between all 
tribes and races at the savage stage of culture, there is 
a growing differentiation as we progress in the barbarian 
stage. Nevertheless, in all the forms of Turanian cult- 
ure there are many notable resemblances. Most re- 
markable is the fact that it seems to be already old, 
before we know anything about it. Alike in Akkad, 
Egypt, and Etruria, men seem to be earnest, gloomy, 
reflective, weary of this life, and strongly inclined to 
brood on another — a sure sign of decadence. Their 
abodes, or rather their places of refuge, remind us of 
caves, being towers built of masses of brick or huge 
blocks of undressed stone. They worship in caves 
mostly; their temples are tombs, and their tombs tem- 
ples. Their religion is marked by mystery and gloom; 
their worship by bloody rites, magic, and incantation. 
Their gods are deities of the dark, rather than of the 
light, inspiring fear, rather than joy. They honor 

*The ethnology of the Egyptians is ill-understood, but at present they 
may conveniently be classed as Turanians. It is probable that Hittite 
and Etruscan (Tyrrhenian, Pelasgian) culture was Turanian, but the 
subject is obscure. I am aware that this view of the three races meets 
opposition in many respectable quarters ; but I state what seems to me 
the truth. 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 31 

women, lay great stress on the family bond, and be- 
lieve in its continuance after death. Hence they build 
sumptuous and permanent abodes for the departed, and 
hold frequent and familiar converse with them. They 
have a firm belief in immortal ghosts, and are strongly 
inclined to ancestor-worship. They practise agriculture, 
dig canals, and pursue several of the useful arts. They 
use fire, and smelt and shape several of the metals, 
chiefly copper, gold, and silver. They discover bronze, 
and make such extensive use of it that the barbarian 
age has sometimes been called the bronze age. They 
study astronomy and learn to determine roughly the 
length of the year. They use magical rites and incan- 
tations to drive away disease, which they suppose to be 
due to evil spirits. Even when they use medicine, it is 
on account of its supposed magical virtues. Their form 
of government is theocratic, exercised through priests 
and kings, the latter often claiming divine descent. 
Education for all professions is imparted through gilds, 
and there is none other — no education for freedom or 
manhood. 

To the Turanians are due the first organization of a 
priestly, scholarly class, holding itself aloof from all 
other classes, and also the compilation of a religious 
literature, with myths — creation, fall (?), flood, etc. — 
laws, and liturgy. The distinctions, cleric and lay, 
natural and supernatural, clean and unclean, sacred and 
profane, are due to them. All organized religious sys- 
tems can, I believe, be traced back to them.* To them 

* Even Abraham is said to have come from " Or of the Chaldees," and 
I think there can be little doubt that the Hebrew Yahweh was originally 
a Turanian deity, perhaps JSa. See Margoliouth, in the Contemporary 
Hevieiv, Oct., 1878 {The Earliest Relig. of the Anc. Hebrews). 



32 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

also must "be attributed the first clear assertion of the 
immortality of the soul and the earliest sense of sin. 
The latter has its origin in a dread of avenging spirits 
and in a tendency to brooding self-criticism, a char- 
acteristic of the race. Finally to the Turanians we owe 
the week and the Sabbath. 

(1) Sumir and ATckad (CJ/aldcea) 

The four great hieroglyphic systems — Egyptian, Cuneiform, Hit- 
tite, and Chinese — sprang undoubtedly from rude picture-writings, 
probably first known in Asia, and which may have been the one 
common original of them all. — Conder, The Hittites and their 
Language, p. 136. 

Egypt and Babylon [Sumir and Akkad] led the way and acted as 
the pioneers of mankind in the various untrodden fields of art, 
literature, and science. Alphabetic writing, astronomy, history, 
chronology, architecture, plastic art, sculpture, navigation, agricult- 
ure, textile industry seem, all of them, to have had their origin in 
one or other of these two countries. — Rawlinson, Ancient Mon- 
archies, Vol. I., p. 60. 

The oldest barbarian culture seems to have arisen 
among certain Turanian or Mongol tribes in the valley 
of the Euphrates. Whence these came we know not 
— probably from the northeast; but at least ten thou- 
sand years ago they had founded two kingdoms — Sumir 
to the south, Akkad to the north — and worked out a 
culture far in advance of savagery. They built castles, 
followed agriculture and the useful arts, studied astron- 
omy, and invented writing. I cannot better give a 
notion of their culture than by translating a passage 
from Professor Delitzsch's work, already referred to: * 

* Die Entstehung des aeltesten Schriftsystems, pp. 214 aeq. 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 33 

" The Sumirian written characters," he says, " afford us 
a glimpse into the state of culture prevailing among the 
people at the time when writing was invented. The 
following attempt to outline the culture of that primeval 
period is based exclusively upon those characters which 
must be assigned to the primitive stratum of the Su- 
mirian system of writing. Signs, regarding which there 
is any possibility of suspicion that they may be of com- 
paratively recent origin — such, e.g., as the ideograms for 
cedar and wine — and, of course, all groups of signs, 
with a very few well-weighed exceptions, have been ex- 
cluded on principle. 

" The region occupied by the people who invented 
writing was beyond measure fruitful. The vegetation 
of the soil, which was highly blessed with water and 
sunshine, and, in addition, artificially irrigated by a close 
net of canals and rivulets, as well as by other means, 
was the most luxuriant conceivable. The date-palms 
were overladen with fruit, and forests of gigantic reeds 
covered the broad marshes on the seashore. 

" Agriculture and cattle-raising were the occupations 
of the inhabitants in time of peace. With the help of 
the plough(?) they loosened the soil for the reception 
of the seed, and rich crops sprang from the bosom of 
the earth. They planted garden-beds and gardens, 
while on the meadows grazed herds of cattle, sheep, and 
goats, tended by herdsmen, crook in hand, and at night 
shut up within hurdles in the open field. In the Su- 
mirian family the females were subordinate to the 
males. The wife was regarded mainly as the bearer of 
children, and the offspring was uncommonly numerous. 
The father was the guardian of the house, and was 
3 



34 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

supported by his sons, who contributed to the protec- 
tion of the family, especially of the younger members 
and, above all, of their sisters. The father-in-law seems 
to have enjoyed special distinction. Bread and fruit, 
milk and butter, water and intoxicating date-wine fur- 
nished food and drink. Besides oxen, sheep, and goats, 
they had, as domestic animals, dogs and asses. They 
hunted for birds and fish with nets, and took par- 
ticular delight in keeping the former in cages. Of wild 
animals they knew the buffalo. There were snakes, too; 
but the great drawback to the life of these primitive 
settlers was the immense number of vermin. For 
clothing they used chiefly the skins of animals, making 
use of the precious stones, found in their own country 
and the neighboring districts, for all sorts of adornment. 
" They dwelt originally in huts made of reeds, but 
at a very early date they built themselves houses of 
bricks, for which the alluvial soil of Babylonia offered 
an inexhaustible source of material, combining these 
into a firm structure by means of asphalt, which is also 
found in large quantities on the spot. Their dwellings, 
which were meant chiefly as a protection against the 
sun's rays, were roofed with boards and surrounded by 
spacious, enclosed courts. The entrance could be closed 
with folding-doors which might be bolted and barred 
with wooden pegs. A clump of houses, that is, a larger 
settlement, possessing, of course, a cistern, was sur- 
rounded with a wall, intended for protection against 
hostile intrusion. For the use of carts and wagons, 
which were drawn by beasts of burden, there were 
special paths or roads. The dead were buried. The 
burial-place, which was the entrance to the ' land 



BAKBAKIAlSr EDUCATION 35 

whence no traveller returns,' was looked upon as the 
' dark abode,' or the ' great city,' of which all men are 
destined one day to be inhabitants. 

" At the head of one or more settlements stood a 
' great man ' (lu-gal), or king, who, as became his dig- 
nity, resided in a ' great house ' (e-gal), or palace. The 
inhabitants of the settlement were his instruments or 
subjects, and their union formed the people. The king 
acted as judge, and in war as general. Armed with 
bows and arrows, daggers and swords, the people went 
out to war against their enemies, and made slaves of 
their captives, both male and female. 

" The appearance of the new moon was the chief 
measure of time. The new moon marked the beginning, 
the full moon the middle, of the month, which was 
reckoned at thirty days, while the waning moon, like the 
setting sun, was regarded as the symbol of weakening, 
vanishing, returning. 

" Black was to them the color of the night; white, 
that of the breaking dawn. Yellow and green seemed 
to them garish, whereas everything dark, for example 
the gray of the clouds, seemed full, saturated color. 

" The starry heaven was to them the home of the 
gods, at whose head were the gods of heaven, sun, 
and moon, and in relation to whom man was nothing 
more than a slave, or even a dog, whose duty it was 
to worship, in the deepest reverence, with his face in the 
dust. A special house, built with special care and splen- 
dor, in a chamber of which, protected on all sides from 
profane gaze, lay the statue of the divinity, was set 
apart as the place of worship. Prayer and sacrifice were 
regarded as peculiarly pleasing to the gods. Such a 



36 THE HISTORY OP EDUCATION 

temple had its foundation exactly facing the four car- 
dinal points of the compass — North (the ' straight ' di- 
rection), East, South, and West, and surrounded by a wall 
with the same orientation. This custom had its origin 
in the notion that the earth, which formed the founda- 
tion of the celestial palace, had sides facing the four 
cardinal points. Besides the celestial gods, those primi- 
tive settlers on the Persian Gulf worshipped sea and 
water gods, chief among whom was the goddess Gur. 
Craven superstition also was in full blast; on the steppe 
all sorts of storm-demons pursued their uncanny prac- 
tices, and even the manes of the departed could, as 
ghosts, bring destruction. Fire, which was produced 
by the revolution of one piece of wood in another, was 
worshipped as the special helper against all dark hob- 
goblins, and the fire-god was looked upon as the subduer 
of all spells. Even the priests, besides performing the 
service of the temple, gave attention to exorcism, or 
the overcoming of hostile demonic powers, above all of 
diseases, in the name of the gods, and were highly re- 
spected as magicians. They were at the same time the 
bearers of the higher spiritual culture. Even the dis- 
covery of writing, as the very sign for man shows, was 
the work of the priests." 

Here we have an excellent picture of barbarian cult- 
ure, with its improvements and its limitations. It does 
not, indeed, show us how education was imparted; but 
it does show us the results of education. The writer, 
further, maintains that the Sumiro-Akkadians had a 
special gift for abstraction and combination, for nu- 
merical and spatial relations, and for everything mathe- 
matical, and also that, when inventing writing, they 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 37 

tried rather to find symbols for dust, wind, and ab- 
stract ideas than to make pictures of fish and corn- 
ears. This would tend to show that their effort was to 
express essences, rather than things, as, indeed, we 
might have supposed. Things need no symbols; indeed, 
we may say they are symbols. 

It is highly probable that the earliest schools in the 
world were in Sumir and Akkad. With the invention 
of writing they became a necessity. They were con- 
ducted by the priests and attended mainly, if not wholly, 
by members of the priestly class, the only one laying 
any claim to learning.* Under barbarian culture, priest 
and scholar are synonymous terms. When schools were 
once established, no doubt other things besides writing 
soon came to be taught in them; but all such teaching, 
whether of history, chronology, mathematics, astron- 
omy, medicine, or divination, was confined to the priestly 
order. Thus it came to pass that in the old Turanian 
States of Mesopotamia the distinction between cleric and 
layman was first clearly drawn. 

(2) Egypt 

When the early inhabitants of Chaldaea are pronounced to have 
belonged to the same race with the dwellers on the Upper Nile, the 
question naturally arises, which were the primitive people and which 
the colonists ? — Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, Vol. I., p. 54. 

The new facts that have been disinterred from the grave of the 
past furnish a striking confirmation of Professor Hommel's theory, 
which connects the culture of primitive Egypt with that of primitive 
Chaldasa, and derives the language of the Egyptians, at all events 

* The same was true during the Middle Age, which, in many respects, 
reverted to barbarism. Clerk=cleric. 



38 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

in part, from a mixed Babylonian in which Semitic and Sumirian 
elements alike claimed a share. — Satce, Contemporary Rev., Jan., 
1897, p. 22. 

The recorded history of ancient Egypt goes back six 
or seven thousand years, and implies a much longer 
unrecorded history.* When the people first appears, it 
has already passed through the village-community and 
town stages of culture, and has assumed the form of a 
monarchy, or, rather, of two monarchies — Upper and 
Lower Egypt. This fact seems largely due to the 
necessity for regulating the Nile throughout its whole 
known course, in order to make life in the country at 
all possible. Without some sort of association among 
the numerous " nomes," such regulation would have 
been altogether impossible. But though Egypt had ad- 
vanced thus far, she had dropped no element from her 
past, and this is perhaps the strangest and most in- 
structive thing about her. Everywhere we find the 
crudest and most primitive conceptions, customs, and 
institutions co-existing with the most advanced. She 
worships stocks and stones, cats and oxen, alongside high 
conceptions of divinity. 

From the earliest known times the Egyptian mon- 
archy has the three social classes — priests, soldiers, pro- 
ducers — well defined. The government is in the hands 
of the first two, who usually play into each other's 
hands. The king is the embodiment and representative 
of the supreme god, and rules by divine right. The 
useful arts are well advanced, and so are the fine arts — 

* In some respects it is almost altogether a history of decay. The 
oldest art of Egypt is the best, and some of it is very good. It steadily 
declines till the country falls into the hands of Alexander and the Greeks. 



BARBAKIAN EDUCATION 39 

architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, and music, 
not to speak of working in the precious metals. The 
mechanical power displayed in the architecture of the 
early pyramids and temples is truly astonishing, espe- 
cially when we remember that the huge blocks of which 
they are constructed were often transported hundreds of 
miles by water. Nor is the technical skill displayed in 
much of the early jewelry less remarkable. Astronomy 
was carefully studied, but had not the religious signifi- 
cance attached to it in the Euphrates Valley. Writing 
goes back to the earliest times, and its development can 
be traced all the way from a pictorial to an almost 
phonetic condition. Inscriptions on temples and tombs 
were numerous, and books were written on many 
subjects — astronomy, agriculture, statesmanship, ethics, 
medicine, etc.; while literature, in the narrower sense, 
was represented by numerous poems and stories. The 
" Book of the Dead," which may be called the Bible of 
the Egyptians, being a complete guide to the lower 
world, existed in numerous copies, and was frequently 
buried with the dead. Papyrus was used as writing 
material, and libraries of papyrus-rolls were collected, 
especially in the temples. There also were the principal 
schools for scribes, musicians, architects, mathema- 
ticians, and astronomers. Though education was thus 
mainly in the hands of the priests, yet at some periods 
the art of writing was common among the laity. 

The oldest book in the world is said to be the Moral 
Aphorisms of Ptah-hotep, which exerted a wide and 
lasting influence. Its morality is altogether of the prac- 
tical or prudential sort, like that of the Chinese. In- 
deed, Egyptian education, as a whole, was practical and 



40 THE IIISTOEY OF EDUCATION 

professional, making no effort to develop free men, and 
knowing nothing of science for science' sake, or virtue 
for virtue's sake. Its aim was to enable each citizen, by 
labor and by a harmless life, to obtain as much satisfac- 
tion as possible in this world, and, by rites and cere- 
monies, to insure the favor of the gods, and, hence, an 
easy existence in the next world, conceived after the 
fashion of this. It is but fair to say, however, that 
righteousness weighed as much as sacrifice with the 
gods. Believing in a ghostly immortality and an ulti- 
mate resurrection, the Egyptians fixed their thoughts 
largely on the life to come, and were more concerned 
to provide for it than for the present one. Hence, 
though not without joy and even mirth, their life was 
earnest and prosaically practical. They never ascended 
to any lofty ideals or philosophical conceptions, for 
which reason their art, even at its best, never attained 
to beauty, but remained on the level of symbolism. It 
everywhere expresses servitude, and not freedom. It 
overpowers by its mass, does not attract by its gracious- 
ness. It is not " its own excuse for being." 

It is worthy of note that in Egypt, as in Turanian 
countries generally, women were permitted to enjoy the 
benefits of education, and to occupy a free and honorable 
position in society and state. They looked forward to 
immortality, and their graves were often adorned with 
great sumptuousness. To this fact and to the long 
isolation of Egypt were largely due the slow progress 
and long endurance of her institutions. "Women and 
isolation make nations conservative. This isolation it- 
self was largely owing to the fact that the Egyptians 
never developed the science of navigation beyond what 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 41 

was necessary for sailing small boats on the Nile. To 
their superstitious minds the sea had weird terrors 
which they had not the courage to brave. Indeed, the 
science of navigation hardly enters into barbarian 
culture. 

(3) China 

What heaven has conferred is called the nature ; an accordance 
with this nature is called the path of duty ; the regulation of this 
path is called instruction. — Confucius, Doctrine of the Mean. 

Man's commencement in life is such that his nature is radically 
good. 

But as to nature, men are mutually near each other, whilst in 
practice they are mutually far apart. — Chinese Primer, first sen- 
tences. 

In China, Turanian culture has continued to exist 
down to the present day; and it is perhaps there that 
we can best see its nature and limitations. Whether or 
not this culture is connected with that of the Sumiro- 
Akkadians, it has many of the same features as the lat- 
ter, and, indeed, looks like a natural development of it, 

A 

being visibly inferior to both Semitism and Aryanism. 
It is essentially of the family type, and, indeed, the 
family is its highest ideal and the object of its special 
reverence. Its religion is animistic, being a worship of 
ancestors and elemental powers, leading to a stagnant, 
prosaic, mechanical, prudential ethics. The language 
of the Chinese has remained at the isolating or juxta- 
positive stage, consisting of monosyllables, not out- 
wardly connected; their writing has not risen above the 
pictorial or ideographic condition; their literature is 
dry, formal, uninspired, and almost childish. In a 



42 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

word, we have in China a low type of culture developed 
to its highest possibilities, and seemingly incapable, 
from long lack of foreign contact, of changing into a 
higher. China is one great family, whose father is the 
emperor, exercising, in education and government, 
parental discipline. 

As the fully-evolved form of a special type, the 
Chinese are naturally conservative in the highest de- 
gree. Their culture, which dates back no one knows 
how long — four thousand years at least — has changed 
but slowly in the course of the ages. Dynasty has fol- 
lowed dynasty; but the people remain the same, in be- 
liefs and in ideals, praying daily, not " Thy kingdom 
come," but " Thy kingdom abide." Their highest am- 
bition being to remain what they are, their attention is 
naturally directed to the past, and to the means of 
preserving it. Their education, therefore, is confined to 
the study of their ancient books, and the imparting of 
the reverential type of manners which these inculcate. 
Every attempt at originality of thought, or freedom of 
action, is strictly prohibited, as impious and un-Chinese, 
and every effort made to model the future on the past. 
We need not be surprised, therefore, to find that their 
education consists in thoughtlessly committing to mem- 
ory ancient texts and writing essays and poems on them, 
in accordance with prescribed models. Those scholars 
who succeed best in this receive the highest rewards — 
state offices and patents of nobility. Indeed, education 
is the path to all public preferment in China. 

In spite of this, the Chinese cannot be said to have 
any course of public education. They obtain their re- 
sults by a system of government examinations more 



BAEBAEIAN EDUCATION 43 

elaborate than any that exists elsewhere. This system, 
which dates from very ancient times, assumed its pres- 
ent form about twelve hundred years ago, and is corre- 
lated with the civil divisions of the country. At the 
head of it is the Han-lin, or Academy of Pekin. The 
lowest or preliminary examinations are held in the 
counties. Those who pass these are allowed to try a 
higher examination, held in the capital of the depart- 
ment. The successful candidates in this obtain a degree 
equivalent to our B.A., and take their first step in the 
ranks of the nobility. Later on, these bachelors under- 
go an examination, by commissioners from Pekin, in 
the capital of the province, and, if they pass it, take a 
degree corresponding to our M.A., at the same time 
rising a step in the ranks of the nobility. They are also 
entitled to present themselves for the fourth, and last, 
examination, which is conducted by the Han-lin, at 
Pekin, the capital of the empire, and lasts for thirteen 
days. Those who pass it take a doctor's degree, the 
candidates who head the list receiving special distinction 
from the emperor. The doctors have a right to public 
office at once, and, if they conduct themselves worthily 
therein, may rise to the highest dignities of the empire.* 
Civil-service reformers who desire to see all public 
offices filled by competition will find their ideal realized 
in China. Should they proceed to estimate its value, 
however, by the present decrepit condition of the coun- 
try, they would hardly arrive at fair conclusions, and 
that for several reasons: (1) The examinations are often 
unfairly conducted, and a good deal of bribery takes 
place. (2) No conclusion can be drawn from an edu- 

* Laurie, Hist. Survey of Pre- Christian Education, pp. 135-41. 



44 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

cation which, like the Chinese, stunts the intelligence 
and fossilizes the imagination, to any modern system 
which seeks to develop all the faculties. (3) No con- 
clusion can be drawn from a people that refuses to 
progress to peoples whose chief aim is progress. (4) 
The present condition of China is due, not merely to 
her stagnant life, but also to recent contact with the 
outer world and the influx of foreign ideas, conditions 
for which she was altogether unprepared.* 

The effect of China's attempt to arrest progress and 
make the present the slave of the past has been to weave 
a superficial order over a deep underlying chaos. China 
reminds one of Polonius, ready on all occasions to pour 
forth a flood of unexceptionable moral aphorisms, while 
remaining at bottom profoundly immoral and hypo- 
critical, full of vanity, servility, and low cunning. She 
has never produced a philosophy, or even a consistent 
theology, but has remained on the level of prudential 
reflection. Her art never rises above grotesqueness, or, 
at best, sensuous prettiness. Much of the technique is 
exquisite, but it expresses nothing, and so remains mere 
virtuosity. Her religion is almost of the savage type, 
and even her ethics, upon which she specially prides 
herself, never rises above the level of prudence and 
propriety. This is true even of the ethics of Confucius 
(541-478 B.C.), who may be called the Chinese Messiah, 
and who is worshipped almost as a god. It is true that 
besides the national religion there are two others widely 
current in the country — (1) Taoism, a kind of nature- 
mysticism, which readily degenerates into spiritism, 
magic, and shamanism; (2) Buddhism (imported about 

* See Boulger, History of China, Vol. HI. 



BAKBAKIAN EDUCATION 45 

a.d. 76), which has become a degraded idolatry, coupled 
with doctrines of metempsychosis and nirvana; but 
neither has sufficed to raise the Chinese above the Tu- 
ranian level. It is characteristic enough that they have 
never risen to any clear notions of God, Freedom, or 
Immortality. They continually translate themselves 
back into nature, instead of translating nature forward 
into themselves, just as many of our modern evolution- 
ists do. 

(B) Ancient Semitic Education 

The Semitic languages regard thinking as essentially as inner 
speaking or as a separating. . . . The characteristic fact re- 
mains that in thinking the Semite separates, the Indogerman 
[Aryan] combines. — Gosche, Ghazzali's Leben u. Werke, pp. 
309 seq. 

In spite of all differences in language, character, manners, and 
mode of life among the various branches of the Semitic race, they 
all manifest a considerable family likeness, which shows itself in 
the uniformity and poverty of their languages, in the mere co-or- 
dination and juxtaposition of their sentences; i.e., in the inborn 
lack of philosophic thought, in their scanty capacity for truly aes- 
thetic art-production, in their inability to develop a free political 
life. These peculiarities have their root in a strongly marked sub- 
jectivism, in the depths of a rich emotional nature, which forms 
the centre of Semitic spiritual life ; in stern, restlessly active cour- 
age, in practical enterprise as well as in egoism, intolerance, and a 
claim to exclusive privilege, rising to fanaticism. In the Semitic 
spirit there appear two opposite elements, an irresistible tendency 
to self-assertion . . . and the most intense subjectivity, coupled 
with a wealth of dreamy emotionality, which often flames up into 
the loftiest enthusiasm, and is the cause which has enabled the 
Cemitic race to produce the three religions of spiritual monotheism 
— the Hebrew, the Christian, and the Muslim. — Schmidt, Gesch. 
der PaedagogiJc, 1 4 , pp. 250 seq. 



46 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

In remote ages the Semites were nomads, ranging 
probably in the Arabian desert, where many of them 
are still to be found. They were a rude, savage, active 
people, delighting in animal freedom and leading a ro- 
bust, warlike life, fearing neither God nor man. Living 
in a region where nature and man are alike capricious, 
and never knowing when they might be in danger from 
either, they learned not to worry about the morrow, not 
to calculate the future, but to be on the alert against 
the possibilities of to-day. They were interested in the 
present, and cared little about past or future. They 
lived in tents, by means of their flocks and herds, and 
these were almost their sole possessions. Of agriculture, 
architecture, and the useful arts they knew almost noth- 
ing. Their religion was animism, much concerned with 
//inn and other weird beings whom they sought to pro- 
pitiate.* Occupied fully with this life, they formed no 
conceptions or hopes with regard to another. They 
guided their nightly journeys by the stars, and sang 
short lyrics on love and heroic deeds. They regarded 
women as merely slaves, or instruments of passion. 
Their language and literature reveal their character. 
The Semite expresses himself in abrupt, disconnected 
sentences, each corresponding to a single intuition. His 
language contains nothing that implies a synthetic ef- 
fort of intelligence. It has no compound words, few 
subordinating conjunctions, few relatives, and, strictly 
speaking, no tenses. It is the language of men living 
alert in the present. 

From time to time, for thousands of years, the Semites 

*See Tylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. L, 41 7- Vol. II., p. 361, and 
Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 113 seq. 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 47 

sent out swarms, which settled in lands already occu- 
pied by Turanian culture — Babylonia, Assyria,* Egypt, f 
Canaan, Greece, Italy. Adopting this somewhat decrepit 
and gloomy culture, they imparted new vigor to it, freed 
it from much of its gloom, and combined it with their 
own restless and warlike tendencies, thus developing 
into settled nations of great power, whose monuments 
in Babylonia, Assyria, and other lands still surprise us. 
Through a combination of Sumiro-Akkadian religious 
conceptions and practices, they became the religious 
people of the world par excellence, looking for all im- 
portant truth to divine revelation, and not to scientific 
investigation or reflection. Their strongly theological 
tendency pushed them on to monotheism, and that in 
two forms. They either merged their various gods into 
one, thus arriving at a widely diffused being of many 
and various attributes, or else they elevated one god to 
supreme rank, and made all the others his sons or angels. 
In the one case they paved the way for pantheism and 
mysticism; in the other, for monotheism proper and a 
moral law. The Babylonians (like the Egyptians) took 
the former course, while the Assyrians with their Asur, 
and the Hebrews with their Yahweh, took the latter.J 



Babylonia and Assyria 

Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, 
and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature ; and his top 

* See Sayce, Lect. on the Tielif/inn of Ancient Babylonia and Assyria. 

t There is no doubt that the Hyksos, who ruled Egypt from B.C. 2550 
to 1597, were Semites. While in Egypt they adopted its civilization, ex- 
cepting its religion. 

% See Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites. It need not be added 
that pantheism is the source of the doctrine of divine immanence, mono- 
theism of the doctrine of divine transcendence. 



48 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

was among the thick clouds. ... I made him fair by the mul- 
titude of his branches : so that all the trees of Eden, that were in 
the garden of God, envied him. — Ezek. XXXI. 3, 9. 

The Chaldajans belong to the most ancient of the Babylonians, 
and, as a caste, hold the same position in the state as the priests do 
in Egypt. Being devoted to the worship of the gods, they philoso- 
phize during their whole lifetime, and have the highest reputation 
in astrology. They are also much given to divination, and prophesy 
the future, while, at the same time, they endeavor to ward off evil 
and bring about good by lustrations, sacrifices, or incantations. 
. . . The study of these things they do not pursue in the same 
manner as the Greeks do. Among the Chaldeans the philosophy 
of these things is a matter of family tradition. The son receives it 
from the father, and is exempt from all other public duty. Having 
their fathers as teachers, they have abundant opportunities to learn, 
and, at the same time, attend with greater confidence to what is 
taught them. Moreover, since they receive instruction from their 
very earliest years, they attain great proficiency, both because these 
years are the most impressionable, and because the time of study is 
thereby lengthened. Among the Greeks, on the contrary, most 
people take up the study of philosophy late and unprepared, pursue 
it awhile, and then give it up, being drawn away by material in- 
terests. — Diodorus Siculus, Bibl. Hist., Bk. II., § 29. 

Babylon was the source to which the entire stream of ancient 
civilization may be traced. It is scarcely too much to say that, but 
for Babylon, real civilization might not even yet have dawned upon 
the earth. — Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, Vol. III., p. 76. 

With much that was barbaric still attaching to them, with a rude 
and inartificial government, savage passions, a debasing religion, 
and a general tendency to materialism, they (the Assyrians) were, 
toward the close of their empire, in all the ordinary arts and 
appliances of life, very nearly on a par with ourselves ; and thus 
their history furnishes a warning . . . that the greatest material 
prosperity may co-exist with the decline — and herald the downfall — 
of a kingdom. — Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, Vol. II., p. 244. 

Between the cuneiform script of Sargon and Naram Sin (b.c. 
3800) and that of Nebuchadnezzar there is comparatively little 



BAKBAKIAN EDUCATION 49 

difference; between it and the script of the early texts . 
there lies the difference between the writing of a child and the 
writing of a grown-up man. — Sayce, Contemp. Rev., Jan., 1897, 
p. 85. 

Name-giving was an important event in the child's life. Like 
other nations of antiquity, the Babylonians conformed the name 
with the person who bore it ; it not only represented him, but in a 
sense was actually himself. — Sayce, Babylonians and Assyrians, 
p. 44. 

History and chronology, geography and law, private and public 
correspondence, despatches from generals and proclamations of 
the king, philology and mathematics, natural science in the shape 
of bears and birds, insects and stones, astronomy and astrology, 
theology and the pseudo-science of omens, all found a place on the 
shelves, as well as purely literary works. ... In Babylonia 
every great city had its collection of books, and scribes were con- 
stantly employed in it, copying and reading the older literature, or 
providing new works for readers. . . . The library was usually 
within the walls of a temple, and sometimes it was part of the 
archives of the temple itself. . . . The school must have been 
attached to the library, and was probably an adjacent building. 
. . The school in later times developed into a university. At 
Borsippa, the suburb of Babylon, where the library had been 
established in the temple of Nebo, we learn from Strabo that a 
university also existed which had attained great celebrity. . . 
In Assyria education was mainly confined to the upper classes. 
The trading classes were perforce obliged to learn how to read and 
write ; so also were the officials and all those who looked forward 
to a career in the diplomatic service. ... In Babylonia it was 
otherwise. Here a knowledge ' of writing was far more widely 
spread, and one of the results was that varieties of handwriting 
became as numerous as they are in the modern world. — Ibid., pp. 
52-55. 

Turanian culture had lasted for thousands of years and 
attained a considerable height in the regions of Sumir and 
Akkad, when it was rudely disturbed by the inroads of 
4 



50 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

semi-savage Semites from the Arabian desert, the " land 
of. the bow." After much fighting, these at last made 
themselves masters of the whole of Mesopotamia. At 
first, six or seven thousand years ago, they settled in 
the southern portion, in Chaldeea, and built themselves 
towns in the midst of the Sumirians and Akkadians, grad- 
ually adopting their higher civilization and, with it, their 
system of writing, their religious literature, and their 
gods, and finally combining into a great Chaldseo-Semitic 
kingdom, with its centre at Babil (Babylon).* Later on, 
they spread northward from Chaldasa, and founded the 
powerful empire of Assyria, f with its centre, first at 
Ashur, later at Nineveh. From about B.C. 2000 to 606, 
Assyria was the more powerful state, extending its sway 
over the whole of Western Asia, including Cyprus, and 
sometimes even Egypt; but, after the latter date, Baby- 
lonia once more rose to eminence, only to succumb, in 
less than a, century, to the Persian Empire of Cyrus the 
Great (b.c. 538). 

During the long rule of the Semites in Mesopotamia, 
their culture never belied its double origin, and never rose 
above barbarism to civic freedom. The moral person, 
if we may so speak, was still the nation, against which the 
individual had no rights. Even before the arrival of the 
Semites in Chaldtea, the distinction between priests and 
laymen had been clearly drawn. After that event, this 
distinction was further emphasized by the fact that, while 
the military class of the Chaldceans gradually yielded its 

*See Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, Vols. I. and II.; Sayce, Lect. 
on the Relig. of Ancient Assyria and Babylonia, and Recent Discoveries 
in Babylonia in Contemporary Review, January, 181)7 ; Jastrow, The 
Reliqion of Babylonia and Assyria. 

+ See Gen. X. 10, 11. 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 51 

place to the Semites, the priestly class retained and even 
increased its authority, imposing its highly developed 
religious system upon the conquerors. Thus it came to 
pass that, while the military class was, for the most part, 
Semitic, and spoke a Semitic language, the priestly class 
was Turanian and spoke a Turanian language. Hence 
there arose a condition of things similar to that which ex- 
isted in Europe in the Middle Age, when the clergy, the 
sole repositaries of learning,* used one language, and the 
other classes another. The result was the same in both 
cases, a separation between religious and secular life, and 
the growth of a purely sacerdotal religion, consisting of 
rites, mysteries, and mysterious doctrines, unintelligible 
to the people generally, but investing the priesthood with 
awesome dignity and power, capable of being used to the 
detriment of the state, or of individuals. Perhaps no- 
where in the world did official superstition ever flourish 
so luxuriantly as in Babylonia. But Babylonian supersti- 
tion had two sides, an exoteric, consisting of rites and 
prayers and accessible to everybody, and an esoteric, form- 
ing a kind of fanciful philosophy, which functioned with 
persons instead of ideas, and was closely related to astrol- 
ogy. This was confined to the priests alone, f who un- 
questionably endeavored to construct for themselves a 
" System of the Universe " satisfactory to reason, as in 

* It must always be borne in mind that all ancient, as well as all med- 
ieval, science relates to the invisible, the sphere of religion. Even 
Greek science (enio-TrJuri) is no exception to this rule. 

t In nearly all oriental religions, including the Greek, there are theBe 
two sides. See even Mark IV. 11, and cf. Bigg, Christian Platonists of 
Alexandria, pp. 91 seq., 141 seq. Babylonian esotericism lies at the 
basis, not only of Gnosticism, Pantheism, and Manicheism, but also of 
the entire mediaeval astronomico-ethical system of the universe, so won- 
derfully set forth in Dante's great poem. On Esotericism see Max 
Miiller, Theo&ophy, or Psychological Religion, pp. 337 seq., where there 
is some exaggeration. 



52 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

them developed. Thus they produced a kind of science, 
which, though mainly fanciful, barred the way for real 
science for thousands of years.* 

From what has been said, it is not difficult to divine 
the nature of Assyro-Babylonian education. It was 
priestly; it was imparted in regular schools connected 
with the temples; it related chiefly to the unseen; it was 
hostile to true education. Yet it included many subjects, 
and carried some of them to considerable perfection — 
reading, writing, arithmetic, astronomy, music, literature, 
philology, architecture, painting, sculpture, worship, 
divination, medicine, history, chronology, geography, 
natural science, and ethics. The first two, owing to the 
clumsy and complicated nature of the cuneiform script, 
were very difficult, and must have demanded much time 
and patience. Besides, writing upon soft clay cannot 
have been easy to learn. Some of this writing is so fine 
that it can be read only under a microscope, and must 
have been written under one.f The astronomy of the 
Assyro-Babylonians was very advanced, and seems to im- 
ply the use of the telescope; \ but it was pursued mainly 
for astrological purposes, for casting horoscopes, etc. 
They invented the signs of the Zodiac, named many of 
the constellations, and were able to predict eclipses of the 
moon. Of their music we know but little; but we are 
sure that, like all Semites, they were fond of it, and 
played on many instruments. Their literature, consisting 
chiefly of epic and lyric poetry of a religious character, 
was marked by sublimity, and must have exerted a power- 

* See previous note. 

t A lens of considerable power has been found at Nimrud (Calah). 
See Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, "Vol. I., pp. 390 seq. 
% See Rawlinson, ut sup., Vol. II., p. 578. 



BAEBAEIAN EDUCATION 53 

ful influence on education. The existence of an ancient 
priestly language, alongside the ordinary spoken Semitic, 
rendered philology, the study of language and its rules, 
a necessity; and we shall perhaps not err if we assume 
that the Babylonians and Assyrians were the earliest 
grammarians and lexicographers. Indeed, we possess 
rudimentary clay grammars and lexicons from their 
hands. Literature was, indeed, a profession, exercised 
by the priests, who were also the archivists and librari- 
ans. Babylonia enjoys the credit of having established 
the earliest libraries. There seems to have been one in 
every city, and a famous one, in early times, at Sippara 
(Heb. Sephervaim), the city of the Sun, perhaps a sort of 
university town, like the Egyptian On or Heliopolis, and 
the Palestinian Kirjath-Sepher (Book-town) in pre- 
Hebrew days.* The architecture, sculpture, and paint- 
ing of the Assyro-Babylonians evinced great technical 
skill, but never rose above a prosaic naturalism or colos- 
sality, and never showed any appreciation of perspective 
or artistic unity. Their medicine, divination, and worship 
•were mainly magical rites, digested into elaborate and 
imposing systems. Their history consisted mostly of 
annals, kept for thousands of years with scrupulous 
care, and arranged according to a chronology of re- 
markable accuracy. Their geographical and ethno- 
logical knowledge was as wide as their empire, and is 
fairly represented in the tenth chapter of Genesis, f Their 
natural history included mineralogy, botany, and zoology, 

* Sippara and Sepher are obviously allied. There can be little doubt 
that the Hebrew Sopherim (see p. 78) had their prototypes in Babylonia. 
On Kirjath-sepher see Sayce, Egypt of the Hebrews, pp. 67 seq. 

t See Rawlinson, The Origin of Nations, Pt. II., and Schrader, The 
Cuneiform Inscriptions of the Old Test., Vol. I., pp. 61-103. 



54 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

in all of which they showed considerable proficiency. 
Their ethics was closely related to their religion, and 
revolved round the notion of sin or transgression, which 
seems to have originated with them, and according to 
which evil acts are judged, not as expressions of charac- 
ter, or as affecting human beings, but as offences against 
unseen powers.* Hence no distinction was made between 
moral and ceremonial delinquencies, or between delin- 
quencies and errors. In all cases the ethical motive was 
craven fear, which lay like a dead weight upon men whom 
superstition had convinced of their utter unworthiness 
and helplessness in the presence of irresponsible gods. 
Such ethics produced their natural results — fanatic re- 
ligiosity and superstitious observance coupled with every 
species of vice — incontinence, cruelty, treachery. It is 
never safe to deprive the human being of his sense of dig- 
nity and nobility, by making him feel himself the slave 
of any capricious power, seen or unseen, however sub- 
lime. Thus the Assyro-Babylonians, though contribut- 
ing many and important elements to material civilization, 
stand as a warning to the world, of how little such civili- 
zation contributes to human well-being, when not rest- 
ing on a moral basis. Jeremiah might well prophesy: 
" Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for 
jackals, an astonishment and an hissing, without an in- 
habitant " (LI., 37). 

The civilization of the Assyro-Babylonians, like that of 
the Egyptians, was transmitted to Europe by the Phceni- 

* It seems probable that the abject sense of sin, so prominent in many 
of the Babylonian penitential psalms, was the result of the terrorism 
which the Turanian priests exercised over the Semitic warriors, and by 
which they were able to maintain their own authority. Muhammad used 
the same means with the same result. 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 55 

cians, Greeks, and Hebrews — the arts by the first, the 
thought by the second, the religion by the third. Of the 
education of the last two peoples we shall speak further. 
This would be the place to speak of the education of 
the Phoenicians, if we had any sufficient knowledge of it. 
But we have not. We merely know that in religion, 
mythology, and ideals of life, they resembled the Baby- 
lonians; that they were cruel, luxurious, and lascivious; 
and that, more than any people of the ancient world, they 
devoted themselves to commerce and manufacture.* For 
many ages they were the great purveyors and colonizers 
of the ancient world. As a result of this, the world owes 
them two things, the science of navigation and a phonetic 
alphabet. The antecedents of the latter are very doubt- 
ful. Some have sought for them in the hieroglyphs of 
Egypt, others in the cuneiform script of Babylon, others 
again in the writing of the Hittites.f The important 
things to note here are that the Phoenicians, like the 
Egyptians, wrote from right to left, and that they wrote 
only consonants. It was reserved for the Greeks to add 
the vowels, and so produce a perfectly phonetic alphabet, 
which has become the basis of all European alphabets. 

(C) Ancient Aryan Education 

Proud in their conquering might, those tribes called themselves 
" Arya," or "Noble," a term denoting the contempt they felt for 
the dark-skinned races they found in possession of the land.— 
Frazer, Literary Hist, of India, p. 2. 

*See Isaiah XXIII. ; Ezek. XXVIII. , and cf. Robertson Smith, 
Prophets of Israel, pp. 26 seq. ; Pietschmann, Die Phbnicier, through- 
out ; Lindsay, History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce. 

T For the latest views see Delitzsch, Die Entstehung des celtesten 
Sehriftsystems, pp. 221-31 ; Conder, The Hittites and Their Language, 
passim. 



56 ' THE HISTOEY OF EDUCATION 

The Aryans, the third and last of the races that have 
borne the torch of culture, seem to have risen from 
savagery to barbarism on the steppes of Southern Russia. 
Here, in the midst of a rich vegetation, and with a cli- 
mate neither too severe nor too mild, they pastured their 
herds, and sowed their crops for many ages. They were 
acquainted with many domestic animals, and several 
fruit-trees and cereals. They lived in house-communities, 
sibs, or clans, presided over by fathers or chiefs, and en- 
tertained great affection for their homes and hearths. 
Being, as agriculturists, dependent on the weather and 
the seasons, they reverenced especially the powers sup- 
posed to control these — Sky, Sun, Moon, Wind, Fire, etc. 
Their gods being thus gods of order and measurement, 
and neither gloomy nor capricious, they themselves be- 
came early accustomed to calm reflection and calculation. 

About the names of these gods we know very little. 
Unlike the Semites, who seized wholes at a glance, and 
only gradually analyzed them, the Aryans seized details 
and gradually combined them into wholes, thus arriving 
at universal laws and law-givers. These law-givers, or 
gods, formed, like themselves, a family more or less har- 
monious, under a father or chief, and the world governed 
by them, instead of being a scene of miracle and caprice, 
came to appear as an ordered whole, whose ways might be 
foreseen and taken advantage of. Thus the Aryans had, 
from an early period, a distinct bent toward science and 
philosophy and away from theology. While the Semites 
explained the world as the miraculous creation of gods or 
a god, the Aryans explained it as the result of an evolu- 
tion, in the course of which the gods themselves came 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 57 

into being.* If their relations to nature became in this 
way rational and calculated, so did their relations to their 
fellow-men. Compelled, for agricultural reasons, to adopt 
more or less settled abodes, they insured the safety of 
themselves, their crops, and their herds, by erecting for- 
tifications and entering into agreements with their neigh- 
bors. In this way they developed that political talent in 
which they excel all other peoples. "While the Semites 
tended to theocracy, faith, and ritual, the Aryans tended 
to civicism, science, and ethical practice. To the Semites 

A 

we owe the Church; to the Aryans, the State. 

At a period not long antedating the dawn of recorded 

A 

history, large numbers of Aryans, under tried chiefs, 
spread East and West, over lands previously occupied by 
Turanian and Semitic culture, and much further. They 
appear later as Hindus, Iranians (Medes and Persians), 
Kelts, Germans, Greeks, Latins, Slavs. In fact, they 
overran nearly the whole of Europe and a large part of 
Asia. Most of their political foundations belong to the 
period of civicism; but there are two which may fairly 
be assigned to that of barbarism — India and Iran. In 
the former they mingled with a Turanian people, who had 
never undergone Semitic influence; in the latter, they 
found a culture compounded of Turanian and Semitic 
elements. In both cases, they settled in the midst of a 
culture higher than their own. 

* With the Babylonian Creation-epic (G. Smith, Chaldcean Account 
of Genesis, Chap. V. ) and the first chapter of Genesis cf . Rig- Veda 
(Muller'a Hist, of Ancient Sanskrit Lit., p.^ 564), Hesiod's Theogony, 
and the Eddie Voluspd. On Primitive^ Aryanism generally see O. 
Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples; Max Muller, 
Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas, chaps. VL, VII. ; Van 
den Gheyn, UOrigine Europe'enne des Aryas. 



58 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



(1) India 

India was governed by priests, and the weal of the nation was 
sacrificed with reckless indifference. — Gakbe, The Monist, 1892, 
p. 50. 

The Hindu enters this world as a stranger ; all his thoughts are 
directed to another world ; he takes no part even where he is driven 
to act, and when he sacrifices his life it is but to be delivered from 
it. No wonder that a nation like the Indian cared so little for his- 
tory ; no wonder that social and political virtues were little culti- 
vated, and the ideas of the Useful and the Beautiful scarcely 
known to them. — Max Muller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Lit., 
p. 18. 

Some four thousand years ago, bands of Aryans from 
the northwest entered the Pan jab, and thence gradually 
spread themselves over the plains of India, occupied by 
races already in process of decay. They had already, in 
the PanjSb, reached a considerable degree of organiza- 
tion, under military chiefs, and had a considerable hymn- 
literature of religious import, recited by priests, a class 
which had already risen to prominence. Their gods were 
the powers of nature, conspicuous among which was 
Agni, the Fire, the heaven-descended divinity of the 
domestic hearth.* They appear to have been a proud, 
vigorous, serious people, without gloom or frivolity, but 
with a contempt for weakness and inaction. Soon after 
their settlement, however, their environment began to tell 
upon them. Accustomed to an invigorating climate and 
manly exercises, they found it hard to adapt themselves 
to the debilitating climate and inertia of their new home. 
Under the influence of these and of the gloomy, brooding 

* See Frazer, Literary History of India, pp. 41 seq. 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 59 

religion of the conquered peoples,* they lost their force 
of will, and sank slowly into a condition of weariness, 
sensitiveness, and half-morbid dreaminess. Eeligion, in 
the sense of anxiety about the life to come, now became 
their chief concern, and, no longer delighting in activity, 
they were fain to picture that life as a condition of com- 
plete and enduring rest. The visible world became un- 
real to them in proportion as the invisible world became 
real.f Under these circumstances it followed naturally 
that, while the warrior class sank into a secondary posi- 
tion, the priestly class rose to the first rank, and, being 
honored in idleness, cast contempt upon those who had 
to labor. Thus the Aryans were divided up into three 
classes, or castes: (1) the priestly Brahmans; (2) the 
warrior Kshatriyas; (3) the agricultural Vaisyas. Below 
all these were the Sudras, or servile conquered population. 

The Brahmans were not only the priests, but also the 
scholars, of the Hindus. To them belonged all learning 
(Veda) and the sole right to instruct their fellow-men in 
things supernatural and invisible. Their learning con- 
sisted in the ability to recite the ancient national religious 
hymns, which, in course of time, had come to be regarded 
as divinely inspired, to perform the numerous sacrifices, 
and intone the numerous prayers and charms, in which 
divine worship consisted. Such learning might be im- 
parted to any of the Aryan castes; but the Sudras were 
forbidden, on pain of death, to appropriate any part of it. 

The Veda, which forms the basis of all Hindu educa- 
tion and literature, has come down to us in the form of 
four manuals, three of which correspond to as many or- 

* Frazer, ut sup. , pp. 64 seq. 

tMax Miiller, Hist, of Ancient Sanskrit Lit. y pp. 18 seq. 



60 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ders of Brahmaiiic priests — the Rig-Veda to the Hotar, 
who invites the gods to the sacrificial feast; the Sdma- 
Veda to the Udgdtar, who prepares and presents the soma- 
juice or other offering, and the Yajur-Veda to the Adh- 
varya, who performs the sacrificial act. The Brahman 
who superintends the whole must know all these three 
Vedas; and the fourth, or Atharva-Veda, instead of being 
his manual, is rather the Veda of the Kshatriyas and fur- 
nishes the rules for domestic worship, births, weddings, 
deaths, sicknesses, etc. Each Veda, again, consists of 
three elements (1) samliita, that is, collections of verses, 
songs, or sacrificial formulas; (2) brdhmanam, or instruc- 
tion in the use of the samliita; (3) sutram, or compendi- 
ous statement of the contents of the brahmanas, made in 
order to assist the memory, and form the basis of ex- 
planation. The brahmanas, again, consist of three ele- 
ments (1) vidhi, or prescription; (2) athravada or ex- 
planation, and (3) veddnta (veda-end), or philosophical 
reflection.* It is out of this last that all the systems of 
Hindu philosophy have sprung. Looking back over the 
contents of the Veda, as they arise in the order of time, we 
can trace the whole development of Hindu thought from 
the early pastoral hymns addressed to the powers of 
nature — fire, sky, wind, etc. — up to the most abstruse and 
empty conceptions and formulas in which the unscientific 
mind seeks to grasp that indefinite something which it 
supposes to lie behind all the variety of the world and of 
thought, and to condition both. And this leads us to con- 
sider the determining aim of Indian education. 

This aim changed from period to period. In ancient 
times, when the military class was dominant, education 

* See Denssen, Das System des Vedanta, pp. 5-12. 



BARBAEIAN EDUCATION 61 

had reference largely to this life, though the people were 
not without the hope of another, with the fathers and gods 
hereafter. In the hymns of the Rig- Veda, there is not a 
shadow of pessimism, or weariness, or brooding over 
death, but everywhere a breath of victorious vigor and 
confidence. The people pray to Agni (Fire) to carry the 
souls of the deceased to the Home of the Fathers, there to 
enjoy bliss.* Gradually we find the priestly influence 
appearing in the belief that Agni is the bridge between 
men and gods, and that the more a man sacrifices through 
Agni, the more sure is he to go to the gods and to be- 
come like them. As the priests were the sacriflcers, they 
naturally gained in power and wealth as the sacrifices in- 
creased, until they came to surpass the military chiefs 
and kings in the estimation of the people, who now, 
under their influence, turned their thoughts to the life 
beyond the grave, and tried to imagine its conditions. 
Thus there arose an elaborate doctrine of the destiny of 
the good and the evil, and in connection therewith an 
elaborate sacrificial system, occupying the chief place in 
life. But matters did not stop here. Brooding reflection, 
once started, and combined with the growing desire for 
rest, gradually made men feel an aversion both to the 
practices by which heaven might be gained, and to that 
heaven itself, with its continued activities and stimu- 
lating phenomena. Hereupon they began to look for- 
ward with pleasure to the emancipation of the individual 
soul from the delusion of phenomena and of multiple 
selfhood, and the remerging of it in the general soul,f 
now regarded as the sole reality. Hence, serious and 

*Frazer, Lit. Hist, of India, pp. 38 seq., 124 seq. 
+ Tennyson, In Metnoriam, XLVII. 



62 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

pious men, after having duly performed their part as 
sons, husbands, fathers, and citizens, began to retire 
into the forest, to prepare, by self-abnegation and medi- 
tation, for this emancipation. In consequence of this, 
there sprang up the notion of a twofold bliss, one tem- 
poral and the other eternal. The former, attainable 
through pious deeds and sacrifice, brought men after 
death, by the circuitous " path of the fathers," to the 
starry heaven of the fathers, where, under the supreme 
lord, they enjoyed the reward of their deeds and after- 
ward returned for renewed life on earth. The latter, 
attainable only by meditation and grace, enabled men 
to realize, and attain complete identity with, the su- 
preme and universal being, a condition of unconscious 
bliss from which there was no return. This higher bliss 
gradually became the aim of all earnest men, and the 
life of India was gradually modified with a view to its 
attainment. The phenomenal world, with its duties, 
activities, and enjoyments, now became a delusive 
dream, from which it was man's chief, or only, duty 
to free himself, while the invisible world became the 
all-in-all of reality. 

The roots of this tendency are present in all people 
who deify the powers of nature without completely per- 
sonifying and individuating them. The gods so created 
remain diffused and vague, and, when man conceives 
himself as of their nature — as breath or spirit, for ex- 
ample — his conception of himself is equally vague. 
Observing, moreover, that natural powers and elements 
pass readily into each other, he comes to believe that all 
things, himself included, are but modifications of one 
primal, indefinite substance, which thus becomes the 



BARBAKIAK EDUCATION 63 

sole reality, while all the modifications or determina- 
tions are mere transitory, restless phenomena. When, 
in decadence, he grows weary and longs for rest, this 
longing takes the form of a desire to return out of 
phenomenality and multiplicity into the indistinction 
of the first substance. Such is the origin of all world- 
despising mysticism and asceticism. 

The decadent Hindus suffered in this way: they 
longed to get away from the restlessness of the chang- 
ing world. One might suppose that, under the circum- 
stances, they would have committed suicide; but this 
seemed to them to offer no release. Owing probably to 
contact with the conquered races, they had come to be- 
lieve, not only in the immortality of souls, but in their 
repeated reincarnation, and so the great question for 
them came to be, how to put a stop to this process. The 
answer was: By abstaining, as far as possible, from all 
action, all desire, all thought, and concentrating atten- 
tion on that perfectly undefined, and therefore unin- 
dividuated, being that lies behind these. When one 
has fully recognized that he is identical with this uni- 
versal being, he is safe from metempsychosis (samsdra), 
and attains to redemption (moksha). " The question of 
the possibility of redemption from individual existence, 
which forms the central point of the Vedanta, as well 
as of all other Indian systems, presupposes the pes- 
simistic conviction that all individual existence is suf- 
fering. This view, indeed, is occasionally expressed in 
the Veda, as well as in the system itself; though it by 
no means receives the emphasis that might be expected. 
How then is redemption from the bond of existence 
possible? Not by works; for these, the good as well as 



64 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

the evil, demand their retribution, and therefore condi- 
tion a new existence, causing a continuation of samsdra. 
Not by (moral) purgation (samskdra); for such is pos- 
sible only in the case of an object capable of change, 
whereas the dtman, the soul, whose redemption is in 
question, is unchangeable. Hence redemption cannot 
consist in becoming anything, or in performing any- 
thing, but in the recognition of something already ex- 
isting, but hidden through ignorance. Salvation comes 
of recognition. When the soul has recognized itself as 
brahman, redemption immediately ensues; recognition 
of identity with brahman and identification with the 
soul of the universe follow simultaneously." * 

Redemptive recognition of self as brahman is some- 
thing that cannot be attained by effort; it depends upon 
the grace of the brahman itself. Man can only clear the 
way for its manifestation, and this he may do (I.) by 
the study of the Veda, (II.) by conforming to the four 
demands, which are, (1) to distinguish eternal from 
non-eternal substance, (2) to renounce all hope of re- 
ward, here and hereafter, (3) to attain the six means — 
(a) mental calm, (b) self-control, (c) self-abnegation, 
(d) patient endurance, (e) collectedness, (f) faith — (4) 
to desire redemption. Roughly speaking, we may say 
that the means conducive to knowledge are two: (I.) 
Works, (II.) Meditation. Works have an ascetic purpose, 
and are not meritorious; they include not only the 
"six means," but also such preparatory practices as 
sacrifice, almsgiving, penance, fasting. Meditation is 
devotional reflection on the words of the Vedic script- 
ures, and must, like threshing, be continued until the 

*Deussen, System ties Vedanta, pp. 510 seq. 



BAKBAKIAN EDUCATION 65 

grain of knowledge — the direct intuition that the soul 
is identical with brahman — is separated from the straw 
of error, the belief in the reality of the world and of 
transmigration, of works, and of enjoyment. The soul 
that has attained to knowledge is free from all delusion; 
its body vanishes and, with it, all activity, pain, and 
pleasure; hence, of course, all moral law. The germ 
of works is destroyed, so that no further birth into a 
phenomenal world is possible, and the perfected soul 
only awaits the moment of death to return into the su- 
preme brahman and be one with it.* 

Such is the essence of Brahmanism. Buddhism, 
which is a sort of reformed Brahmanism, dating from 
about B.C. 500, merely carried the older religion to its 
logical conclusions, f It abolished, as delusion, the caste- 
system and the distinction between Aryans and Sudras, 
it declared the active life to be unnecessary as a prepara- 
tion for the contemplative; it emphasized the pain 
inseparable from all individual existence; it winged 
enthusiasm for eternal rest in nothingness (nirvana). 
Its founder, the Siikya prince, Siddartha, was not a 
Brahman, but a Kshatriya, reared in a district where 
brahmanic teaching was greatly modified by contact 
with older native religions. This fact accounts for its 
attitude toward Brahmanism. Buddhism flourished for 
a time in India; but it was gradually extirpated by the 
older and more human Brahmanism, and forced to seek 
refuge in Nepal, Ceylon, Further India, China, and 
Japan, where it has still many millions of adherents. 

Considering the ideal of Indian life, we can have no 

*Deussen, ut sup., pp. 510-14. 

t It first became popular under Asoka, about 260 B.C. 
5 



66 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

difficulty in realizing the character of the corresponding 
education. It was wholly ethical and ascetic. The 
world, being regarded as a delusion, was, of course, con- 
sidered unworthy of serious attention; hence, there was 
no science. Self -discipline was the sole study, and this, 
it must be admitted, gave occasion to some attractive 
virtues, especially under Buddhism — sympathy, gentle- 
ness, endurance, unworldliness, etc. It is easy and 
common, however, to misunderstand and overestimate 
these. After all, Buddhism and, to a large extent, 
Brahmanism, are " systems of organized weariness," not 
to say of cowardice, or dread of pain; hence, all the 
virtues of the two great Indian religions rest upon a 
foundation of cowardice, and aim only at unconditional 
sloth, entailing the loss of the moral individuality. Un- 
der such circumstances, India, of course, never rose to 
the civic grade of culture, but, with all her subtle 
thought and gentle virtues, remained in a condition of 
unfreedom, of glorified barbarism, which gradually de- 
generated into a lower condition still, until she fell an 
easy prey, first to the Muslim and then to the Christian. 



(2) Iran (Medo- Persia) 

Prometheus comes to examine the whole troup, and finds all the 
other animals duly provided for, but man without clothes, shoes, 
lair, or arms, and the fated day approaching when he must emerge, 
as man, from the earth into the light. Prometheus, being at his 
wits' end as to how to preserve man alive, steals the artistic deft- 
ness of Hephaestus and Athena, along with fire — for without fire it 
could not possibly have been acquired by anyone, or been of any 
use — and so presents it to man. In this way man came into pos- 
session of the useful arts, but lacked political wisdom, for that 



BAEBARIAN EDUCATION 67 

lay with Zeus, and Prometheus was not yet permitted to enter the 
acropolis, the abode of Zeus. — Plato, Protagoras, 321 D. 

It is clear that, in 'the view and intention of the A vesta, the 
priests formed a closed caste. — Spiegel, Eran. Alterthumsk., III., 
567. 

A king sat on the rocky brow 

That looks o'er sea-born Salamis. 
While ships in thousands lay below 
And men in nations : all were his. 
He counted them at break of day, 
And, when the sun set, where were they ? 

— Byron. 

The Iranians and Indians are the two divisions of 
the Asiatic Aryans. The two mnst have lived together 
long after they parted with the European Aryans. 
Their languages* are very closely related, and so are 
their original mythologies, manners, and customs. When 
we first hear of the Iranians, it is under the name of 
Medes.f Their scattered tribes were conquered in 835 
B.C. by Shalmanezer, and subsequently by two of his 
successors, thus becoming subject to Assyria. In this 
condition they adopted much of the civilization of their 
Semitic conquerors, including several of their gods, and 
their priestly caste, the Magi, which, as we have seen, 
the Assyrians had, through the Babylonians, borrowed 
from the Turanian Sumiro-Akkadians. Asur, the chief 
god of the almost monotheistic Assyrians, they bor- 
rowed under the name of Ahura f (usually lengthened 

*It is through a gross misunderstanding that the Iranian language has 
been called Zend. Zend means commentary ! 

t Heb. Madai. See Gen. X., where Madai occurs along with Gomer, 
Magog (Magi ?), Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The Persians are 
not yet named separately. 

X It is usually assumed that Ahura is but the Persian form of the Indian 
(Sanskrit) Asura, identified with Varuna; but this view seems to me 



68 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

into Ahura-Mazda, Ormazd). Thus in the eighth cen- 
tury B.C. the Iranians had a religion composed of Tu- 
ranian (Magian), Semitic (monotheistic), and Aryan 
(vedic) elements. In the last quarter of that century, 
the second of these elements was greatly strengthened 
by the importation into Media of a large number of 
Israelitish exiles* (722 B.C.), who having, under pro- 
phetic influence, become monotheists, found no diffi- 
culty in identifying their own Yahweh with the Median 
Ahura (Asur), thus elevating the ideal of the latter. It 
was in all probability due to the influence of the same 
exiles that the Medes soon after became a powerful 
nation, so that, in 606 B.C., they were able, with the 
help of the Babylonians, to overthrow the Assyrian 
capital, Nineveh, and establish a kingdom of their own. 
It must have been about the same time that a band of 
them marched southward into Semitic lands and founded 
the kingdom of Persia, in what was formerly, in part at 
least, Elam.f In less than a century after these events 
there occurred a great religious movement, which is 
most easily explained as due to Israelitish influence J 
— Mazdeism, whose reputed founder was the Median 
Zarathushtra (Zoroaster),§ and which clearly contains 

beset with insurmountable objections, that cannot be enumerated here 
It certainly fails to account for the Iranian monotheism. 

* 2 Kings XVII. 6, XVIII. 9. Sargon boasts that he carried away 
27,280 of them on this occasion. See Schrader, Cuneif. Inscriptions, 
Vol. I., p. 264 (Eng. Trans.). 

t " Elam is by no means . . . equivalent to Persia. We never meet 
with the name ' Persia ' or ' Persian ' before the time of Cyrus, either on 
an Assyrian or a Babylonian monument." — Schrader, Cuneiform Inscrip., 
Vol. I., p. 96 (Eng. Trans.). 

X See Darmesteter, Zend-Avesta, Pt. I., pp. lvii.-Lx. (2d Edit.) ; Max 
Mtiller, Theosophy, pp. 48 seq. 

§ The various dates assigned to Zarathushtra vary by more than 4,000 
years. The truth seems to be that, while the Mazdean movement dates 
from the sixth century B.C., its putative founder is a legendary hero of 
very remote date. (See Jackson, Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran, 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 60 

Turanian, Semitic, and Aryan elements. How far the 
reform attributed to Zoroaster affected the Medo-Per- 
sian religion in pre-Hellenic times is by no means 
clear;* but it is certain that the religion of Ahura, a 
potential monotheism, was the faith of the Persian 
kings from the time of Darius I. (521-485 B.c.).f We 
must say " potential," because, thanks to the Turanian 
Magian J element in it, it was, outwardly, a physical and 
moral dualism. Over against Ahura-Mazda, the power 
of light and good, it placed Angro-Mainyus, the power 
of darkness and evil, and made the world the scene of 
their conflict. This introduced the ceremonial distinc- 
tion between things clean and things unclean, which 
leads to so much burdensome superstition. The fire- 
worship, so prominent among the Persians, seems to 
contain both Turanian and Aryan elements. That a 
dualistic religion, finding expression in fire-worship, 
should have been the parent of any very lofty moral 
ideas is highly improbable. Nor, indeed, do we find 

pp. 149-78; Windischmann, Zoroastrische Studien, pp. 44-56, 260-313; 
Darmesteter, Zend-Avesta, Pt. I., pp. lxvii.-lix. It was common in 
those days to seek prestige for religious systems by attributing them to 
ancient heroes. That the Jews ascribed Mazdeism to Israelitish influ- 
ence is clear from Daniel II. 48 (cf. Ezek. XIV. 14, 20) and Josephus, 
Antiq. of the Jews, Bk. X. , cpp. x. xj. 

* Herodotus does not allude to Zoroaster, nor does his name occur in 
any Persian inscription. He was known to the Greeks in the age before 
Alexander : more we cannot safely affirm. 

+ See the famous Behistun inscription. Rawlinson, History of Herod- 
otus, Vol. II., pp. 490-514. There is nothing to show that Cyrus the 
Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, was a worshipper of Ahura. 
On his recently discovered cylinder, he is spoken of as an Elamite and as 
a worshipper of Marduk and other Babylonian deities. See Sayce, Fresh 
Light from the Monuments, pp. 138 seq. It may well be that the legend 
which connects Zoroaster with Hystaspes (Vistashpa), and the latter 
with the father of Darius, points to the fact that the worship of Ahura 
by the Persian kings dates from about Darius's time. 

X On the Turanian origin of Magism see Schrader, Cuneiform In- 
serip., Vol. II., pp. 110-15; Spiegel, Eran. Alter th. Vol. III., pp. 585 
Beq. 



70 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

any such among the ancient Iranians. There are, to be 
sure, ideas of wonderful moral reach in certain parts of 
the Avesta (the Bible of Iran); but that work, in the 
form in which we now possess it, dates from the third 
century of our era, the rise of the Sassanids; and the 
parts in question, particularly the gathas, or psalms, 
long supposed to be the most ancient parts of it, clearly 
show the influence of Greek philosophy* and even of 
Christianity. The fact, then, is that the Iranians, when 
they settle down to form states, are an Aryan people, 
who have already largely adopted two older forms of 
culture, the Turanian and the Semitic, and been deeply 
influenced by them, without rising greatly above them. 
And this is shown in their education. Formerly we 
were wont to draw our notions of Persian education 
from Xenophon's Cyropcedia; but we now know that 
that work in a mere edifying, tendentious romance, in- 
tended to recommend to the Athenians the Spartan type 
of education. In spite of this, it contains a certain 
amount of truth, as we see from a comparison of the 
account of Herodotus (I., 131 sqq.), parts of which are 
here subjoined: 

" The Persians consider it improper to erect statues, 
temples, or altars, and even censure those who do so — 
I suppose because they do not conceive the gods in the 
form of men, as the Greeks do. They are wont to 
ascend the loftiest mountains and perform sacrifices to 
Zeus, calling by that name the whole vault of heaven. 
They sacrifice also to the sun, the moon, earth, fire, 

* See translation of the Avesta by Darmesteter and Mills, in Sacred 
Books of the East. With Vol. III. (Mills), pp. XVIII-XXV. cf. Vol. I. 
(2d Edit. , Darmesteter), pp. xxx. sqq. , lxiv. sqq. 



BAKBAKIAN EDUCATION 71 

water, and the winds. To these alone they sacrificed 
originally; but they have learned, in addition, from the 
Assyrians and Arabians, to sacrifice to Urania. The 
Assyrians call Aphrodite, Mylitta; the Arabians, Alitta; 
the Persians, Mitra.* 

" They are greatly given to wine f . . . and are 
wont to deliberate about the most important matters 
when they are drunk. The resolution which they have 
reached in this way, the master of the house in which 
the deliberation has taken place lays before them again 
on the following day, when they are sober; and if, in 
this condition, it pleases them, they adopt it; otherwise, 
they drop it. Likewise, whatever they resolve upon 
when sober they reconsider when drunk. 

" When they meet each other in the streets, one can 
distinguish whether any two persons meeting are of the 
same rank or not. If they are, then, instead of greeting 
each other, they kiss each other on the mouth; if one 
is a little inferior to the other, they kiss each other on 
the cheeks; whereas, if the one is much less noble than 
the other, he falls down and worships him. Of all 
peoples, they honor — next, of course, to themselves — 
most highly those who dwell nearest to them, then those 
who live next to these, and so on. . . . 

" They adopt foreign manners more readily than any 
other people. For example, thinking the Median dress 
superior to their own, they have adopted it; and in war 
they wear Egyptian breastplates. They practise all 
sorts of luxury they hear of. . . . Each man mar- 
ries many lawful wives and, besides these, maintains a 

* This is a mistake, one of several in this account. 
+ Soma or homa ? 



72 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

still larger number of concubines. Next to courage in 
battle, the highest mark of manliness is supposed to be 
a host of children. To the man who can show the 
largest number the king annually sends gifts. They 
think strength lies in numbers. They instruct their 
children, between the ages of five and twenty, in only 
three things — horsemanship, archery, and truth-telling. 
Up to the age of five, the child does not come into its 
father's presence, but passes its time in the hareem — 
the purpose being that, if it dies in infancy, it may cause 
the father no grief. This custom I deem praiseworthy, 
and so, likewise, this other, that even the king does 
not put anyone to death on acount of a single fault, 
and that no other Persian subjects any of his slaves to 
irremediable punishment for a single fault. It is not 
till after he has weighed the bad deeds of his slave 
against his good deeds that the master gives vent to his 
anger. They maintain that no one ever murdered his 
own parent; that if such a case happened, the chil- 
dren, upon inquiry, were always found to be either 
changelings or bastards. They say it is not likely that 
the real parent should die by the hand of his child. What 
they are not allowed to do, they are not allowed to 
speak of. In their estimation, the basest thing is to 
lie, and the next basest, to be in debt — and this for 
many reasons, but especially because (they say) the 
debtor must tell some sort of lie. . . . They do 
not . . . spit or wash their hands in rivers, or 
permit anyone else to do so, but have the greatest rev- 
erence for them. . . . The corpse of a Persian is 
not buried until it has been torn to pieces by a bird or 
a dog. I know for certain that the Magians do this; 



BARBARIAN EDUCATION 73 

for they do it publicly. Covering the body with wax, 
the Persians inter it. The Magians differ widely from 
other men, and even from the Egyptian priests. The 
latter make it a point of conscience to kill no animal 
but the victims for sacrifice, whereas the Magians, with 
their own hands, kill everything but dogs and men, 
making a great virtue of this, and killing, in like man- 
ner, ants and snakes, creeping and winged things." 

Nothing is more striking than the wide difference 
that prevails between the Iranians and their Indian 
brethren. This we may believe to be due to two causes: 
(1) that the Iranians were never subjected to the in- 
fluence of a debilitating climate, like that of India, (2) 
that they mingled with Semitic peoples, which the 
Indians did not. Owing to the former, the warrior 
class remained superior to the priestly;* owing to the 
latter, the Iranian religion tended to monotheism, and 
not to pantheism. Ahura-Mazda was, plainly, the god 
of the warrior-class, that is, of the Semitized Aryans, f 
As a consequence of this, Persian education was mili- 
tary, or knightly, and not priestly, although, no doubt, 
the foreign priestly class had its own education, in- 
cluding astrology, divination, medicine, literature, etc. J 

Barbarism reached its highest expression among the 
Iranians, and especially among the Persians. § We find 

^ * Another reason for this was that the Magian priests, not being 
Aryans, were kept in an inferior position. Once, after the death of 
Cyrus's son, Cambyses, the Magians did attempt to capture the govern- 
ment; but they were speedily put down by Darius (521). See Herod., 
III., 61 seq. Cf. Spiegel, Bran. Alterthumsk., III., 567. The Magi are 
not mentioned in the Avesta. 

t Cf. Spiegel, ut sup., III., 601, who says Mithra. 

X See Spiegel, ut sup. , III. , 581 seq. 

§ The Greeks frequently used the terms " Mede " and "Persian " indis- 
criminately. The Median empire lasted from B.C. 606 to 538, when Cyrus 
put an end to it and founded the Persian empire. In the Prometheia of 



74 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

among them a certain Promethean virtue and greatness 
of soul, of which Cyrus is the best embodiment; but 
two things still weigh upon them, preventing them from 
rising to civic culture and artistic freedom — a despotic 
form of government and an hereditary priesthood. Both 
these have to be overcome ere civicism can be realized.* 

^Eschylus, Prometheus is meant to embody barbarian culture, while Zeua 
stands for the civic culture of Greece. See quotation from Plato, p. 66. 

*See Herod., III., 31, and cf . Spiegel, firan. Alterthumskwide, Vol. 
HI., pp. 606 seq. 



CHAPTEE V. 

CIVIC EDUCATION 

Now, lo, if he beget a son, that seeth all his father's sins, which 
he hath done, and feareth, and doeth not such like, ... he 
shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live. — 
Ezekiel. 

The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. — 
Jesus. 

The history of humanity is a progress in the consciousness of 
freedom. — Hegel. 

In savagery, men, grouped into small communities 
by the blood tie, having but a meagre experience and 
a beggarly world, and, being unskilled in the processes 
of abstraction and generalization, are almost entirely 
the slaves of natural needs and supernatural fears. In 
barbarism, organized into larger communities, with a 
^rnonTvaried experience, new discoveries, and division 
of social functions, they attain a certain freedom from 
their needs and fears by establishing special institu- 
tions to deal with these. The producing class provides 
against hunger; the military, against visible attacks; 
the sacerdotal, against invisible injury from the super- 
natural. The price paid for this freedom is complete 
subordination to the system of these institutions. Thus, 
men free themselves from servitude to nature and 
supernature by subjecting themselves to conventional 

75 



76 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

institutions. In the barbarian stage of culture these 
are all-powerful, and the individual is entirely sub- 
merged in the nation, which is the moral personality. 
Accordingly, the sins of the fathers are visited upon the 
children; the curse of crime descends from generation 
to generation; nay, the sin of the father of mankind 
taints the whole race. 

As men ascend above barbarism, their progress is 
marked by a gradual emancipation from institutions, 
or a gradual development of individualism. Institu- 
tions do not, indeed, disappear, any more than did nat- 
ure when they arose; but man now slowly becomes 
master of them, and rises to self-direction under insti- 
tutions, that is, to true, moral freedom. He passes from 
naive thought to critical reflection; from conventional 
estimates of things to rational estimates, on the basis 
of worth for moral ends; from action determined by 
status to action determined by reflection and contract. 
He now sets up individual ideals — the saint, the hero, 
the philosopher, the citizen — and tries to realize them 
in life and in art. Having now, for the first time, some- 
thing of his own to express, he expresses it in forms 
which give him delight, that is, in forms of beauty. 
Eecognizing himself to be an original source of action, 
and not a mere puppet in the hands of higher powers, 
he claims personal* immortality, and builds himself 
splendid ideals of eternal existence — a life in heaven 
with the gods. 

Of the three races that have been the bearers of 
civilization, only two have been able to rise above bar- 

* I say " personal," not " individual." Personality is an ethical term, 
and it is always the ethical attribute that conditions immortality. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 77 

barism, the Semitic and the Aryan.* It was, indeed, 
through their united efforts that the further step to 
civicism became possible. The peoples that best repre- 
sent civic culture are the Semitic Jews,f and the Aryan 
Greeks and Eomans, who, in their turn, united to make 
possible the final, or human, type of culture. 



(1) Judcea 

As a religion of ethical ideas, Judaism produced not schools of 
philosophy, but schools for youth, in which the growing genera- 
tion was educated. "Go," said the heathen thinkers to their con- 
temporaries, who wished to weaken Israel, " go to the Jewish 
schools, in which the children are instructed in the observance of 
the moral law ! There is the source of their strength, there the 
secret of their endurance. If you wish to conquer them, attack 
the schools " (Talmud). — Strassberger, Gesch. der Erzieh. u. d. 
Unterr. bei den Israeliten, p. 33. 

The Hebrew people, when it first figures in the pages 
of the Bible, is at the nomadic and savage stage of 
culture. From contact with the settled Canaanites it 
rose, in the days of Saul, David, and Solomon, into a 
polytheistic barbarism, remaining in that condition as 
long as it had a national existence. Meanwhile, how- 
ever, the prophets — Amos, Hoshea, Isaiah, Micah, Jere- 
miah^ — had succeeded in raising a portion of their 
fellow-citizens out of polytheism, through monolatry, 

* Unless, indeed, it should prove that the Japanese are capable of 
taking the step ; and this seems probable.^ If so, however, they will 
have taken it under combined Semitic and Aryan influence. 

t I.e. , the post-exilic Jews. The Hebrews before the exile must be 
classed as barbarians, along with the Phoenicians. 

X See Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel ; Cornill, Der Israel. 
Prophetismus ; Wellhausen, Hist, of Israel and Judah and Prologo- 
mena zur Gesch. Israels. 



78 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to monotheism, and to an ideal of personal righteous- 
ness, as the sacrifice which God demands of men.* 
Eighteousness is the mark of civic culture. 

About 621 B.C., a short time before the Babylonish 
Captivity, King Josiah, under the combined influence 
of priests and prophets, gave official recognition and 
effect to the teachings of the latter by the promulga- 
tion of a code of laws, which our best critics recognize 
as, in the main, identical with the book of Deuteron- 
omy, f During the Captivity this book became the 
programme and bond of union of that " remnant " of 
the Jews, which sought to remain " the servant of Yah- 
weh " (the Lord), and when, in 458, a portion of these 
" returned," and, along with their poorer brethren, who 
had not been carried away, restored the Jewish nation, 
as a theocratic polity, under the suzerainty of Persia, 
the book was enlarged, by the addition of other elements, 
into the " Law " (Torah, the Pentateuch), and made the 
basis of the new institution. The " word of the Lord " 
being now regarded as closed, no more prophets arose. 
Their place was taken by the sopherim, or scripture- 
scholars, X who devoted themselves to the preservation, 
interpretation, and teaching of the Law in connection 
with the different synagogues which arose at this time. 
Thus came into existence the beth-hammidrash,§ or 
" house of instruction," which did so much for the re- 
ligious and moral culture of the Jews, but which, at 

*See Hoshea VI. 6; Isaiah I. 11-17; and cf. 1 Kings III. 1-3; 2 
Kings XXIII. ; Amos V. 21 seq.; Psalm L. 8-15. 

t See Canon Driver, Crit. and Exeget. Commentary on Deuter- 
onomy. 

% Not "scribes," as our versions have it. See Schiirer, Hist, of the 
Jeios in the Time of Jesus Christ, II., i, 306-79. 

§ See Schurer, ut sup., II., ii., 52-89. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 79 

the same time, trained them to a punctilious legal for- 
malism, fatal to free development, and conducive to 
exclusiveness, dogmatism, and fanaticism.* 

It is needless to say that all Jewish instruction had 
for its subject the Law, and was therefore religious and 
moral in its character. It set out with the assumption 
that all important truth had been divinely revealed in 
the Law, and had only to be understood in order to 
meet all exigencies. Hence, every line, word, and let- 
ter of it was submitted to microscopic investigation, and 
made to yield a maximum of meaning, sometimes by 
methods altogether unpermitted. " Later Judaism," 
says Schiirer (II., i., 348), " discovered that there is a 
fourfold meaning of Scripture, which is indicated by the 
word OTIS (parties, paradise), viz., (1) pesliat, the sim- 
ple or literal meaning; (2) remez (suggestion), the 
meaning arbitrarily imported into it; (3) derusli (in- 
vestigation), the meaning deduced by investigation; 
(4) sod (mystery), the theosophic meaning." f We need 
not wonder that " Jewish exegesis . . . degenerated 
into the most capricious puerilities. From its stand- 
point, e.g., the transposition of words into numbers, 
and numbers into words, for the purpose of obtaining 
the most astonishing disclosures, was by no means 
strange, and quite in accordance with its spirit." % The 
result of Scripture-interpretation by these methods has 
been handed down to us in the Talmud (= instruction), 

* See Schiirer, utsup., II., ii., 90-125, and cf. Paul, En. to Galatians, 
III., 19-29. 

t Cf. Dante, Convivio, II., i., and cf. Letter to Can. Grande, § 7. On 
the mischievous effect of allegorical interpretation see Bigg. Christian 
Platonists of Alexandria, pp. 134-51; Hatch, Influence of Greek Ideas 
and Usages upon the Christian Church, pp. 58-85. 

\ Schiirer, ut sup., II., i., 348, 349. 



80 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

or, rather, Talmuds,* whicli have been the basis of Jew- 
ish life and scholarship for many hundred years. f 

Jewish education, though defective both in matter 
and in method, and tending to fetter rather than free 
the mind, achieved four valuable results: (1) it devel- 
oped a taste for close, critical study; (2) it sharpened 
the wits, even to the point of perversity; (3) it encour- 
aged a reverence for law and produced desirable social 
conduct; and (4) it formed a powerful bond of union 
among the Jewish people. We need not wonder that 
it stood high in their estimation, that all studied who 
could, and that scholars were highly honored. The 
pupils of the sopherim were the Pharisees (perushim = 
Separatists), who in the centuries before Christ came 
to be sharply distinguished from the Sadducees, or 
priestly party, on whom the Law sat lightly. J When, 
after the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple worship 
ceased, the Sadducees disappeared, and Judaism has 
ever since been represented by the Pharisees, devoted 
to the study of the Law.§ 

As to the manner in which instruction was given, 

* The midrashim of the sopherim were of two kinds, halarha, or legal 
deductions from the Law, and haggada, or expansion of it in the form of 
religious and moral legends. In the second century of our era, the former 
was codified into the Mishna of Judah hannasi, with its sixty (G3) tracts. 
This again became the basis of two Talmuds, the Palestinian (a. d. 350±) 
and the Babylonian (a.t>. 550±), the latter beiDg four times as long as 
the former and much more complete. Both contain halachic and hag- 
garlic elements, and are wonderful, and rather chaotic accumulations of 
rabbinical subtlety and fancy. 

+ See Schurer, ut sup., I., i., 119-44; Em. Deutsch, The Talmud, in 
Literary Remains. 

X See Schurer, ut sup., II., ii. , 1-43. 

§ In its narrower and original sense, the Law is the Pentateuch ; but 
the term is often made to include the later additions made to the Script- 
ure canon — the Prophets, earlier and later, and the Kethubim or Writ- 
ings (wrongly rendered hagiographa) — in fact the entire Old Testament. 
See Canon Ryle, The Old "Testament Canon. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 81 

we read: " The master sat at the uppermost place, sur- 
rounded by his pupils, like a crown on the head, in 
order that every pupil might see and hear him. The 
master did not sit on a stool and the pupils on the 
ground; but all sat either on stools or on the ground. 
Formerly it was the custom for the master to sit, and 
the pupils to stand; but, shortly before the destruction 
of Jerusalem, it was arranged for both pupils and 
teachers to sit." Instruction was carried on apparently 
by the dialectic, or conversational, method, and the 
Talmud enjoins that " the pupils' questions should 
never become too much for the teacher." * We find a 
typical example of this method in the Fons Yitce of 
the Jewish philosopher Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron), who 
lived in the eleventh century. It is said of Jesus that 
he was found in the temple, "sitting in the midst of 
the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them ques- 
tions." f Neither teacher nor pupils, it should seem, 
brought any text-book to the school; both depended 
upon their memories for the texts to be discussed. 
" The education for which general provision was made 
in the schools was primarily and almost exclusively relig- 
ious in character, and largely the work would be learning 
by rote Biblical verses and the dicta of the rabbis which 
form the l oral law ' [halacha] . These dicta . . . 
the reduction of which to writing was prohibited, and 
the Bible, were the stock in trade of the scholar. The 
storing of the memory would be the first concern; the 

* For the whole of this section, see Spiers, The School System of the 
Talmud, excellently reviewed in Intemat. Jour, of Ethics for April, 
1899, pp. 404-6. Strassburger, Oesch. der Erziehung und des Unter- 
richts bei den fsraeliten. 

t Luke II. 46. 

6 



82 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

cultivation of intelligence and acuteness would come 
somewhat later, and, from a certain point of view, would 
be of secondary importance. The Talmudic methods* 
of education have primarily the storing of the memory 
in view. One of the most interesting and striking 
features of the Talmudic literature is the keen psycho- 
logical insight shown by the rabbis, f We can have no 
clearer exemplification of this insight than the com- 
pleteness with which they recognized the conditions 
most favorable for retention, and the still with which 
they sought to secure these conditions. They sought 
to secure the maximum of intensity for the impressions 
by the simultaneous affection of several senses. The 
word was not only to be heard, but also spoken and 
read. Visual, auditory, and muscular memory were all 
called upon to assist in the retention of the impression. 
The aid of musical memory, also, was enlisted; for the 
scholars sang or chanted their lessons. Great insistence 
was laid upon adequate and constant repetition; and, 
above all, every device was adopted to secure the full 
attention of the scholar by rousing his interest. In the 
case of more advanced scholars, the subject for which 
they asserted preference was alone to be selected. Of 
great interest in this connection is the system of mne- 
monics employed and recommended in the Talmud. The 
scholars are exhorted to make constant use of symbols, 
catch-words, and other mnemonic devices. In the 
tractate ' Shabbath ' an interesting description occurs 
of a lesson on the alphabet. Words are selected of 

* It is needless to say that these methods antedate and underlie the 
Talmud. 

t Name replacing the earlier sopherim. See Schurer, ut sup. y II., 
i., 315. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 83 

which the consecutive letters of the alphabet are the 
initials,* and the words are grouped in easily remem- 
bered phrases conveying some moral injunction. Few 
would expect to find in the Talmud the prototype of 
the familiar ' A was an Archer,' etc." f The fact is 
that Jewish methods of education passed from the 
Jewish schools of Alexandria into the Christian " cate- 
chetical schools," and thence into the schools of the 
Middle Age and of modern times. 

It seems that the beth-hammidras7i did not concern 
itself with primary education, which was given at home 
by the head of the family. Soon after the destruction 
of Jerusalem, however (a.d. 70), Joshua ben Gamla 
caused schools for children over six to be established in 
every town and village, and made attendance compul- 
sory. These schools often sat in the open air, notwith- 
standing which they were highly appreciated. The 
compiler of the Mishna said: "The world exists only 
by the breath of school-children; " and we read in the 
Talmud, " A town without a school and school-children 
should be demolished." " Jerusalem was destroyed be- 
cause there ceased to be schools and school-children 
there." J Such being the attitude of the Jews toward 
education, we need not wonder that " they searched 
from Dan to Beersheba, but found not an illiterate per- 
son; from Gabath unto Antiphorus, and could discover 
neither male nor female who was not well acquainted 
with the laws of the ritual and ceremonial observance." § 

* There are even "alphabetical psalms" (9, 10, 25, 37, 111, 112, 119, 
145). See Cheyne, Orig. of Psalter, pp. 51, 228, etc. 

t The prototype of " The Hoiise that Jack Built " also occurs in it. 
X Spiers, School System of the Talmud, pp. 1 seq. 
§ Ibid., p. 19. 



84 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Jewish education being religious and moral, great 
stress was laid upon the character, and especially the 
piety, of the teachers, and the demeanor of the pupils. 
Of the former the highest worth and dignity were de- 
manded. Their work was regarded as divine work and 
themselves almost as divine agents. Neither youthful, 
unmarried, nor quick-tempered persons were allowed to 
teach. As to the pupils, the Talmud tells us: "All 
kinds of work which a servant does for his master, must 
a pupil do for his instructor, except the taking off and 
putting on of shoes." The pupils' virtues were modesty, 
respect, and perseverance. Teachers made every effort 
to enter into friendly relations with their pupils, and 
to study their individual characteristics. They arrived 
at the following generalization, among others: "Four 
dispositions are found among those who sit for in- 
struction before the wise. They correspond, respectively, 
to a sponge, a funnel, a strainer, and a sieve; the sponge 
imbibes all; the funnel receives at one end and dis- 
charges at the other; the strainer suffers the wine to 
pass through, but retains the dregs; and the sieve re- 
moves the bran, but retains the flour." Again, a famous 
rabbi said: " I have learnt much from my teachers, 
more from my school-fellows, but most of all from my 
pupils." Such was the spirit of Jewish education. 

It is easy to point out defects in this education, nar- 
rowness, formalism, virtual hostility to science, self- 
consciousness, etc.; but, when we consider its effects 
upon the Jewish people, and how it not only held them 
together, but enabled them to maintain a struggle of 
unparalleled severity for two thousand years, and finally 
brought them out conquerors, we cannot but accord it 



CIVIC EDUCATION 85 

our heartiest admiration. It was their solace in the 
darkest of times, and there is no period which cannot 
show distinguished rabbis keeping alive the study of the 
Law and the taste for learning. Thus it came to pass 
that the Jews were the great purveyors of learning and 
the chief translators of the Middle Age, and that even 
to-day many of them count among our most distin- 
guished scholars.* 

One lesson, above all, Jewish education has to teach 
us, viz., that the most important element in all educa- 
tion is moral discipline. The Greek, with his art and 
his philosophy, and the Eoman, with his law and his 
statesmanship, have vanished from the face of the earth; 
but the Jew, with his moral discipline, his Torah, and 
his Talmud, is still with us, as strong and as ready for 
life's struggle as ever. 

It may be well to conclude this section by replying 
to a possible objection. It may be said that the Jews 
never founded a free state or rose to civic freedom, 
whence they ought to rank as barbarians. The answer 
is that, under the Maccabees, they did found a free 
state, which lasted over a hundred years (165-63 B.C.); 
and that, although its theocratic constitution, claiming 
divine origin, was barbarian in form, it was, in reality, 
civic, the laws depending for their adoption upon the 
free moral judgment of the people, f The Jews, like 
all Semites, place the origin of moral authority outside 
of themselves; J but it does not cease to be moral au- 

* See Steinschneider, Die hebrae. Uebersetzungen des Miltelalters. 

t See Nehemiah VIII. It is needless to say that the Law contained in 
its sacrificial system, demanded by the uncultured masses, remnants of 
savagery even, as, indeed, was recognized by the great prophets. See 
Hoshea VI. 6 ; Isaiah I. 11-17, and cf. Psalm L. 8-15. 

% See Jerem. XXXI. 33; Ps. LI. 10; cf. Martineau, The Seat of Au- 
thority in Religion. 



86 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

thority on that account. The practice, however, has 
this disadvantage, conspicuous enough in Jewish history, 
that the laws, being regarded as divine, cannot be abro- 
gated or amended, but must be interpreted with subtle 
and often perverse ingenuity in order to keep pace with 
the advance of moral judgment. Hence the Talmud. 
The civic consciousness of the Jews centred in three 
conceptions: (1) an omnipotent, creator God, who had 
chosen the Jews as his vicegerents on earth; (2) a Mes- 
siah to restore them to this exceptional position, which, 
through unfaithfulness, they had lost; (3) Holiness on 
their part, as the condition of this restoration. Thus 
their supreme ideal took the form of a " kingdom of 
heaven " upon earth. After the rise of the Maccabees, 
they came to believe that the citizens of this kingdom 
would be immortal and that the righteous dead would 
rise to share in it. It was then for the first time that 
they began to entertain notions of personal immortality,* 
and thus to pave the way for the Christian ideal of a 
kingdom in heaven — an ideal in which the three central 
conceptions of Judaism appear as the three persons of 
the Trinity. 

(2) Greece 

To Babylonia, far more than to Egypt, we owe the art and learn- 
ing of the Greeks. It was from the East, not from Egypt, that 
Greece derived her architecture, her sculpture, her science, her 
philosophy, her mathematical knowledge, in a word, her intellect- 
ual life. — Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, Vol. III., p. 76. 

Except the blind forces of Nature, nothing moves in this world 
which is not Greek in its origin. — Henry Sumner Maine. 

* Daniel XII. 2, 3 ; Book of Enoch (Charles's Edition), pp. 52, 57, 
and passim. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 87 

And what in restless seeming balanceth 
Do ye make steady with enduring thoughts. 

— Goethe, Faust, Prol. in Heaven, sab fin. 

Forevermore, 
With grander resurrection than was feigned 
Of Attila's fierce Huns, the soul of Greece 
Conquers the bulk of Persia. 

— George Eliot, Spanish Gypsy. 

The Jews, though rising to the civic ideal of indi- 
vidual worth, self-determination, and responsibility, 
never attained to that of complete moral autonomy. 
Their law-giving Power and their Law both remained 
external, being obeyed rather as authorities than as 
embodiments of reason.* Though the same thing is 
largely true of the Greeks in the earlier part of their 
historic career, yet, in course of time, they rose to the 
higher position. Indeed, it is just this rise that gives 
them their unique importance in history. 

The Greeks, or, as they called themselves, Hellenes, 
resembled in many respects the Iranians. In prehistoric 
times, after separating from the other Aryans, they oc- 
cupied for a considerable period the mountainous regions 
lying between the steppes of Eussia and the plain of 
Thessaly. Here, divided into several tribes, they led a 
free, hardy life, developing that courage and that fine 
physique for which they afterward became so famous, 
and gradually encroaching upon the country to the 
south of them. This country, in very ancient times, 
had been occupied by a tower-building Turanian race, 
later known as Pelasgians (Pelishtim, Philistines) or 
Tyrrhenians (Etrurians f) — a race with a gloomy relig- 

* See, however, Jerem. XXXI. 33 seq. 

t The Greeks always called the Etrurians Tyrrhenians. 



88 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ion, embodied in such chthonic deities as Hades, De- 
meter, Persephone, Dionysus, Castor, and Polydeuces.* 
At a time near the dawn of history these Pelasgians 
were conquered and driven into mountainous or barren 
regions by a number of tribes closely akin to the Phoe- 
nicians and Hebrews — Semites who brought with them 
their Baals and Baalaths: Apollo, Poseidon, Heracles, 
Ares, Hermes, Cybele, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Ar- 
temis, etc.f In course of time these tribes united into 
an empire under the rule of the Pelopids, in the days 
of the last of whom, Agamemnon, took place the great 
struggle, called the Trojan war, which greatly enfeebled 
the nation. Taking advantage of this, the Aryan Hel- 
lenes, in three tribes — JEolians, Dorians, and Ionians — 
came down and conquered it, very much as the Jutes, 
Angles, and Saxons conquered Britain in the fifth cen- 
tury of our era. It is with this event, which seems to 
have occurred about 1100-1000 B.C., that Greek history 
proper begins. 

It is generally said that the earliest accounts we have 
of the Greeks come to us from the Homeric poems; 
but this is not strictly true. The civilization described 
by Homer is not Greek, or even Aryan, but Semitic and 
Turanian. He writes, indeed, in Greek; but his myths 
and legends, his gods and heroes, are mainly Semitic. J 
The names of the subordinate personages, which he 
himself invented, have all Greek etymologies; whereas 

* All these, but the first, were called by the later Greeks oi n*yd\o<. Oeoi, 
the Great Gods, or, properly, the Old Gods— Kabiri. The Arab. Eabir 
means both great and old. Hades was later called the Pelasgic Zeus. 

t These names, which have no etymology in any Aryan language, are 
easily explainable in Semitic. 

X I am well aware that this is not the ordinary view ; but I feel sure 
that it is correct. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 89 

those of the principal characters, which belonged to the 
original myths and legends, are plainly Semitic. More- 
over, the art-objects found in recent years at Mycenae, 
Spata, Menidhi, and other places are at once Homeric 
and non-Greek. The fact is, the Homeric poems were 
composed at a time when the civilization of Greece was 
still mainly Semitic, and only slightly modified by 
Aryan influence. It took some three hundred years, 
forming a kind of " dark age," for the two elements to 
find their proper relations. At the end of that time, 
the Hellenes had adopted much of the higher civiliza- 
tion of the Semites, especially their gods and religion, 
but had greatly modified and elevated all, at the same 
time retaining a distinct social and political superiority, 
and imposing their language on the whole people.* 

The Greeks, then, when, about 800-700 B.C., they 
began to play a distinct part in history, were an Aryan 
people, which had, in large degree, adopted and modi- 
fied an older Semitic civilization, itself containing cer- 
tain elements borrowed from a still older Turanian 
culture. As they spread themselves into the mountain- 
ous regions they came into direct contact with the 
Turanians, and were considerably influenced by them.f 
But everywhere the Hellenic tendency to measure, 
method, and order made itself felt. About 800 B.C., the 
Boeotian Hesiod brought order into the chaotic pantheon 
of Homer by introducing among its members the family 

* It is a general rule that, whenever Semites and Aryans combine, the 
former supply the religion (the supernatural), the latter the art, science, 
language, and statesmanship (the natural). The great body of Aryans 
to-day profess Turano-Semitic religions. 

t It is noteworthy that, while in the Homeric poems the Turanian 
gods (see p. 88) play little part, they become prominent as soon as 
Aryanism gets the upper hand. Tragedy, comedy, and all the "mys- 
teries " are connected with them ; indeed, belong to them. 



90 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tie. In Homer, none of the gods but Zeus is married 
or has a household; in Hesiod, they are nearly all mar- 
ried and have families.* His Theogony is the earliest 
attempt in history at a reflective, systematic, teachable 
theology, f 

If, now, it be asked why the Greeks did not, like the 
Iranians, succumb to military despotism and super- 
natural priestcraft (see p. 73), the answer is easy. The 
Iranians were subject to the Semites before they were 
their masters, and the Semites to whom they were sub- 
ject had accepted, as agents of the Unseen, the Tura- 
nian priesthood. The Greeks, on the contrary, were 
never subject to the Semites, and the Semites whom 
they conquered, and whose civilization they adopted, had 
never submitted to the Turanian priesthood. Thus, 
among the Greeks, the agricultural or producing class 
held its own and found a mouthpiece in Hesiod. At 
the same time, the heroic themes and Aryanized heroes 
and heroines of Homer — Hector and Achilles, Penelope, 
Andromache and Nausicaa — secured him an abiding- 
place in the hearts of the whole people. In this way 
the Greeks escaped the tyranny of the priesthood alto- 
gether, and that of the military class to a large extent. 
It is this fact, more than anything else, that enabled 
them to rise to the consciousness of free individuality 
and to introduce civic life into the world. 

* This is an Aryan trait, with profound implications. Semitic gods 
have " faces " (Exod. XXXIII. 14), but are not married. 

+ Hesiod is the earliest Greek schoolmaster, instructor in the arts of 
peace. His Theogony and his Works and Days, a sort of versified 
Parmer's Manual, are the earliest school-books. See Heraclitus, Frag. 
35 (Edit. Bywater). In the Theogony, Zeus, though evolved like every- 
thing else, is the supreme god, and stands for Aryan supremacy, order, 
and family life. At the same time he has borrowed many Semitic traits, 
and is said to have been born in Crete. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 91 

The education current in Homer's time is summed 
up in the words of Phoenix, the guardian of Achilles: 
" For this end he [Peleus] sent me forth to teach thee 
all these things: to be a speaker of words and a doer 
of deeds." * It was wholly practical, and acquired in 
the commerce of life, often, no doubt, under the guid- 
ance of some skilled tutor like Phoenix, who was, prob- 
ably, a Phoenician. There were no schools in those 
days, because there were no books. Though letters 
were known to the Phoenicians and to other inhabitants 
of Western Asia long before the date of Homer, there 
is no clear proof that he was acquainted with them.f 
In spite of this, the Homeric world is a highly educated 
one, perhaps the highest type of civilization without 
book-learning that is known to us. So true is this that 
we, the people of to-day, find ourselves far more at home 
in it than in the less remote world of the Middle Age. 
Homer's Achaians4 and even his Trojans, though 
gifted with but little knowledge, are far advanced in 
ethical culture and refinement. Bravery, prudence, 
truthfulness, loyalty, kindliness, hospitality, female 
chastity, are among the virtues admired and practised 
by them. Agamemnon and Odysseus, Achilles and 
Patroclus, Priam and Hector, Andromache and Penel- 
ope, Arete and Nausicaa, not to mention the less worthy 
Menelaus and Helen, are characters which the world 
refuses to forget. The Achaian family and social life 
is sweet and tender. Woman is free and occupies a high 

* Iliad, IX., 438 seq. 

+ On the o-j/iuaTa Auypa of Iliad, VI., 168, see Jebb, Introd. to Homer, 
p. 113. The oldest Greek inscriptions do not go further back than the 
seventh century B.C. 

% Homer calls the inhabitants of Greece Achaians, Argeians, and 
Danaans, never Hellenes. See Gladstone, Juventus Mundi, pp. 3U-72. 



92 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

place. Polygamy is unknown.* Slavery exists; but the 
slave is a member of the family, and well treated. 
Though there is a trait of savagery in the Achaian char- 
acter, we always feel that the men and women are gen- 
tlemen and ladies. They are all intensely human and 
have that most admirable of all qualities, perfect sim- 
plicity. There is no more perfect gentleman than the 
Phaeacian Alcinous, no more perfect lady than his 
daughter Nausicaa. Though there is a good deal of 
superstition, it is never of the craven sort, while there 
is much genuine piety and moral reverence for the gods.f 
These are not separated, as among oriental nations, by 
any wide gulf from man. They are stronger and wiser, 
indeed, but they do not belong to a different race. \ 
Zeus is " father of gods and men," and all are equally 
subject to Fate, that dark, irresistible power which sets 
a limit to all caprice. § Belief in immortality exists; 
but, as among the pre-exilic Hebrews, it is vague and 
gloomy. The shade of the great Achilles declares that 
he " would rather be a serf and a thrall to another, to 
a man with no land of his own and little means, than 
rule over all the wasted dead." The works of art 
mentioned or depicted by Homer show considerable ad- 
vance, but seem to be mostly of Phoenician origin. It is 

* Among the Trojans, Priam is a polygamist (Iliad, XXIII., 495-97). 
In spite of characters like Hector and Andromache, Trojan civilization 
is inferior to Achaian. 

+ " All men hunger after gods," says the son of Nestor (Odyss. , in., 48). 
"Jove will never be an abettor of liars," says Agamemnon (Iliad, IV., 
235). 

% See Schiller, Die Q otter Griechenlands. 

§ See Gladstone, Inventus Mundi, pp. 358 seq. Cf. Gilbert, Griech- 
ische Gbtterlehre, pp. 11 2 seq. 

1 Odyss., XL, 489 seq.; cf. Iliad, XXIII. , 100 seq. The Hades of the 
Greeks is an exact counterpart of the Sheol of the Hebrews and is, doubt- 
less, borrowed. Cf. Phases of Ancient Feeling towards Death, note E 
to Geddes's Phcedo of Plato. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 93 

curious that he nowhere mentions a statue of god or 
man, and rarely a temple. 

Gladstone has entitled a work on Homer Juvenilis 
Mundi, and there is a general impression that the civil- 
ization depicted by Homer is young and vigorous; but 
a closer study of his works shows that it was, on the 
contrary, verging to decline. It may be said to have 
come to an end about the date of the first Olympiad, 
776 B.C., when Greek civilization proper began — a civ- 
ilization in which the material was mainly due to Sem- 
itism, the form and the ideals to Hellenism. 

The Hellenes set out on their political career with 
two new elements, a Hellenized Semitic alphabet, ex- 
pressing vowels, as well as consonants — hence com- 
pletely phonetic; and the poetry of Homer, of which 
the materials — the myths, legends, gods, and heroes — 
are Semitic, while the form and the ideals are purely 
Aryan.* It is difficult to overestimate the value of these 
elements. The use of letters necessitated the establish- 
ment of schools, and, as the priests had no recognized 
standing, and no special connection with learning, these 
fell into the hands of laymen — a new event in history, 
and one of infinite significance. The Homeric poems, 
though never endowed with canonical authority, be- 
came the property of the whole people, the great text- 
book in education, presenting types of individual virt- 
ue, manly and womanly, that could not fail to be fatal 
to despotism and conducive to liberty. The Homeric 
heroes and heroines became the ideals of the Greek peo- 

* Cf. Tennyson's Idyls of the King, in which the material is due to 
the conquered Celts, while the form is English. The word "Homer" 
Compos) means hostage, and may point to a fact. 



94 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

pie. Thus the harmless-seeming creations of the poet's 
fancy became powerful agents in shaping actual life to 
noble issues. 

Greek education, from the first, had for its aim indi- 
vidual Excellence or Worth (aperr))* often named, from 
its two component elements, Fair-and-good-ness (/cako- 
fcayadia), that is perfection of body in strength and 
beauty, and perfection of soul in wisdom, fortitude, 
temperance, and justice. At the same time, this ideal 
of individual excellence was never separated from that 
of public usefulness. Individual worth was worth for 
public ends, for social and political life.f Such edu- 
cation naturally fell into two parts, Gymnastics for the 
body, and Music for the soul. Music was never dis- 
sociated from Poetry, and hence, in later times, mental 
education broke up into two parts, Music proper and 
Letters (ypafifiara). These might be regarded either as 
Arts or Sciences. As arts, they were used to purify 
or purge the soul; as sciences, to instruct or enlighten 
it. Hence education came to consist of three parts: 
(1) Gymnastics, (2) Purgation, (3) Instruction. 

Temporally regarded, Greek or Hellenic education 
falls into two great periods, the " Old " and the " New," 
the former corresponding to the theological, the latter 
to the philosophical, phase of Greek thought. The 
" New Education " was largely due to the efforts of in- 
dividual thinkers, some of whom wrote treatises on 

* All this is admirably set forth in Aristotle's paean to Worth, for a 
translation of which see my Aristotle, p. 4. 

+ As a rule, it was only the free citizens, the full burgesses, whose cir- 
cumstances were such as to enable them to devote their whole time (ex- 
cept that demanded by the care of their patrimony) to public affairs, 
that received education. Women, artisans, and slaves were practically 
excluded from it. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 95 

education. After Greece fell under the power of Mace- 
donia, and her influence spread over the great East, 
there arose a half-cosmopolitan form of education, 
which may be called Hellenistic, and which falls into 
two periods, a Macedonian, proceeding from Alexandria, 
and a Roman, proceeding from Rome. 

The " Old Education " of Greece, which the Spartans 
never abandoned, but carried to extremes, was a dis- 
cipline, intended to form citizens, god-fearing, law- 
abiding, patriotic, brave, and strong. The state (tt6\l<;), 
of which the family, the township (877^05), and the tribe 
(<f>v\rj) were component parts, absorbed the whole man 
and demanded his entire activity. The scope of this 
education is admirably stated by Aristophanes, in words 
put into the mouth of Right Reason: "When I was in 
my prime, and self-control was held in respect, . . . 
a child was not allowed to be heard uttering a grumble. 
Then all the boys of the quarter were obliged to march, 
in an orderly way and with the scantest of clothing, 
along the streets to the music-master's, and this they 
did, even if it snowed like barley-groats. Then they 
were set to rehearse a song . . . either ' Pallas, 
mighty city-stormer,' or ' A shout sounding far,' put- 
ting energy into the melody which their fathers handed 
down. And, if anyone attempted any fooling, or any 
of those trills, like the difficult inflexions a la Phrynis 
now in vogue, he received a good thrashing for his 
pains, as having insulted the Muses. Again, at the 
physical trainer's, the boys, while sitting, were obliged 
to keep their legs in front of them. ... At dinner 
they were not allowed to pick out the best radish-head, 
or to snatch away anise or celery from their elders, or to 



96 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

gourmanclize on fish or field-fares, or to sit with their 
legs crossed. . . . Take courage, young man, and 
choose me, the Better Eeason, and you shall know how 
to hate the public square, to avoid the bath-houses, to 
be ashamed of what is shameful, to show temper when 
anyone addresses you in ribald language, to rise from 
your seat when your elders approach, and not to be a 
lubber to your own parents, or to do any other unseemly 
thing to mar the image of Modesty, or to rush to the 
house of the dancing girl . . . or to talk back to your 
father, or, addressing him as Japhet, to revile the old 
age which made the nest for you. . . . Then, fresh 
and blooming, you will spend your time in the gymnasia, 
and not go about the public square, mouthing monstrous 
jokes, like the young men of to-day, or getting dragged 
into slippery, gumshon-bamboozling disputes; but, go- 
ing down to the Academy, with some worthy companion 
of your own age, you will start a running-match, 
crowned with white reed, smelling of smilax, leisure, 
and deciduous white poplar, rejoicing in the spring, 
when the plane-tree whispers to the maple. If you do 
the things which I enjoin, and give your mind to them, 
you will always have a well-developed chest, a clear 
complexion, broad shoulders, and a short tongue." * 

Modesty, reverence, purity, hardihood, strength, self- 
control, sociability, and patriotism — these are the virt- 
ues which the Old Education sought to cultivate. 
Eeading and writing were, doubtless, taught; but they 
were not prominent. The literary education consisted 
mainly in singing the productions of the old bard9, 
Homer, Hesiod, and the earlier lyric poets. Religion 
accompanied everything. 

* Clouds, w. 962-84 ; 1002-13. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 97 

The passage from Aristophanes is, mainly, a descrip- 
tion of school education (extending from the seventh to 
about the fifteenth year of the child's life), as distin- 
guished from family education, on the one hand, and 
from state (or college) education, on the other. Family 
education was in the hands of mothers and slaves, and 
seems to have been humane, but rather unsystematic. 
Games and stories, varied with singing and discipline, 
filled the waking life of the child. Correct behavior and 
obedience were strongly insisted upon. In Sparta, state 
education began with the school; in Athens, only with 
the college. In the former, both sexes received state 
education; in the latter, only the boys. Athenian girls 
received no schooling outside the family; Spartan girls 
received public instruction in gymnastics and simple 
music, just as the boys did. 

While the Spartan state was a sort of military socialism, 
supported by public slaves (helots), Athens aimed at culti- 
vating the arts of peace, as well as those of war. When 
her young men, about the age of fifteen, left school and 
palestra, which were private institutions, they entered, or 
might enter,* the public gymnasia, and fit themselves for 
all the duties of citizenship, legislative, judicial, and mili- 
tary. Being now free from their pedagogues, they could 
go where they pleased and, in gymnasium, street, agora, 
pnyx, theatre, etc., come in contact with public men, and 
make themselves acquainted with all the details of public 
life. Under these conditions, it did not seem necessary to 

* As there was no compulsion in the matter, it was, for the most part, 
only the sons of rich men that did so ; and since only those men were eli- 
gible for public offices who had submitted to state training, it followed 
that, in the days of the " Old Education," all these offices were in the 
hands of the wealthier classes. 



98 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

provide any special intellectual training for them, where- 
as their gymnastic exercises were carefully continued. A 
scientific trainer subjected them to those severer exer- 
cises which prepared them for camp life.* At the same 
time they learnt to ride, drive, row, swim, banquet, etc. 
Their life was almost entirely spent in public and in the 
open air. Seeing little of family life, and almost nothing 
of respectable young girls, they had little opportunity of 
developing their affectional nature in a healthy way, and 
hence were exposed to grave dangers. This was the weak- 
est side of Athenian education. 

At the age of eighteen, the Athenian youth reached 
his majority, and became an independent citizen — we 
might fairly say, took the degree of citizen. His name 
was enrolled in the demos to which he belonged, he cut 
his long hair, and put on the dark garb of the citizen. He 
was presented to the assembled people, furnished with 
shield and spear, and made to take the Solonian oath of 
loyalty to the state, f He was now an ephebos, or citizen- 
novice, with a novitiate of two years of hard military ser- 
vice still before him. The first year he spent near Athens, 
drilling and acquiring a knowledge of military tactics. At 
the close of it, if he passed his examination, he was drafted 
off to the frontier, to act as militiaman in some guard- 
house, or as mounted policeman. At the end of the sec- 
ond, he underwent a " manhood examination " (Boxifiaaia 
€i? avSpas), and, if successful, took his place in the ranks 
of full citizens, there to receive his university education, 
which ended only with his death. Such was the " Old 

* The athletic habit was not cultivated. The exercises were running, 
leaping, discus-throwing, wrestling, boxing, 
t See my Aristotle, p. (51. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 99 

Education " of Greece, the education which produced 
Buch men as Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides, Phocion, 
iEschylus, Pericles, Socrates, and made possible such vic- 
tories as those of Marathon, Salamis, and Platsese. It 
was emphatically an education for civic manhood, and 
it was gloriously successful. Its ideal was the perfect 
citizen. 

Thus far, the man and the citizen had not been dis- 
tinguished, and no place had been left for the former, 
as such — for individualism. But the day came for that 
also, a day heralded by two events, the Persian Wars and 
the rise of Philosophy or Kenection. The former showed 
the value of the free, civic individual, as against the des- 
pot-ruled mass, and led to democracy; the latter turned 
attention to the facts of nature and life, and away from 
the myths by which the meaning of these had been dis- 
torted; in a word, to science and away from theology. 
The former brought external, the latter internal, freedom 
to the individual, as such. 

The absence of distinct priestly and military classes al- 
most of necessity led to democracy, the Persian Wars 
merely completing a work already far advanced. The 
same thing made Philosophy possible; for priestly and 
military organization is everywhere the foe of free reflec- 
tion. We have already seen that in Homer the many 
capricious (Semitic) gods had behind them an inexorable 
Fate or Necessity, due to Aryan thought. As Aryanism 
gained the upper hand in Greece, this concept, under the 
name of Nature (<pv<ri<;), gradually came to the front and 
set itself up in opposition to Convention (vo/u,o<;, Sio-is), 
to which the gods, since they were not universal, but 
different among different peoples, owed their origin. 



U" 






100 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Thus arose in the Greek mind the distinction between 
Necessity, the basis of science and philosophy, and Con- 
vention, the basis of mythology and theology, or, in a 
word, between science and theology — a distinction which 
slowly ripened into a conflict, going on to this day.* 
Greek philosophy was originally an appeal from conven- 
tional and local gods to universal Necessity or Nature, 
an endeavor to find some stable principle of life, amid the 
conflict of various gods and worships. In more modern 
language, it was an appeal from particular subjectivity to 
universal objectivity. Nature was supposed to be inde- 
pendent of human feeling or desire. Nothing is more in- 
teresting, in the history of human thought, than the proc- 
ess by which this supposition came to be disproved, and 
the discovery made that nature is vofiw, conventional, or 
subjective. This is not the place to write, even briefly, 
the history of pre-Socratic philosophy. Suffice it to say 
that it ended with the two famous sayings of Protagoras: 
" About the gods, I cannot know whether they are or are 
not," and " Man is the measure of all things, of the ex- 
istent as existent, and of the non-existent as non-ex- 
istent." The former abolished the gods and theology, 
the latter, nature and science. All that remained was in- 
dividual subjectivity, or universal convention. Thus, for 
the first time in the history of the world, individualism 
made its claim to absolute validity. No more momentous 
event ever took place. As- presented by Protagoras, this 
claim undermined the entire basis upon which Greek 
political and ethical life and education rested, and the 

* See ^Eschylus, Agam., 4-10; Prometh., 511-19; Lersch, Sprach- 
philosophie der Alten, pp. 4 seq. ; White, Hist, of the Warfare of Science 
and Theology ; Busaell, The School of Plato, pp. 29 seq. * 



CIVIC EDUCATION 101 

result threatened to be complete anarchy. There seemed 
to be nothing stable anywhere.* If anything of the sort 
existed, it must evidently be sought where it had been 
least expected, in man himself. Here Socrates, the arch- 
6ophist,f sought and found it, opening up a new career for 
philosophy. He discovered, by his dialectic (conversa- 
tional) method, that, while all sensation, or feeling, as 
6uch, is subjective and individual (so far the sophists were 
right), the world of essences, or things, which we place 
behind the bundles of these, as grouping and conditioning 
them, that is, the world of completed thoughts, or ideas,] 
is objective, virtually the same in all men. By this dis- 
covery, he was able to vindicate the claim of the individual 
to absolute validity, and, at the same time, to reconcile 
that claim with political and moral life. In a word, 
Socrates discovered free personality and moral freedom, 
and made the greatest of all epochs in the world's history. 
In doing so, he likewise introduced a distinction between 
the subjective and objective worlds, a distinction which 
had momentous consequences. 

In the hands of Plato, that great poetic genius, who 
undertook to continue the work of Socrates, this dis- 
tinction hardened into a separation between the subjec- 
tive and extra-subjective worlds.§ Soerates's completed 

* For the result upon education see the passage from Aristophanes 
quoted in my Aristotle, pp. 60 seq. 

t Sophist was not a term of reproach in his time. See Grote, Hist, of 
Greece, Vol. VIII., pp. 151 seq. ; Hegel, Oesch. dcr Philos., Vol. II., pp. I 
seq. ; Bussell, School of Plato, pp. 61 seq. Socrates adopted the funda- 
mental positions of the Sophists, and supplemented them. See Siebeck, 
Untersuch. zur Philos. der Griechen, pp. 1-63. 

% It is not certain that Socrates used the term "idea," but he cer- 
tainly had the notion. 

§ Object, of course, has no meaning apart from subject. They are not 
two things, but two aspects of the same thing in consciousness. Kant 
and his followers have blundered sadly in this respect. See Trendelen- 
burg, Elementa Logices Aristotetece, p. 54, note 2. 



102 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

thoughts, the same in all consciousness, now become 
ideas, outside of all consciousness — a world of things-in- 
themselves, subsisting by themselves.* Thus, not only 
was the world doubled, but the unseen world of ideas 
came to be regarded as the reality, of which the seen or 
sensible world was only a shadow. Those who accepted 
this view naturally turned their interest away from the 
shadowy, to the real, world, and, in so doing, found a 
sphere for the individual. Thus there came to be a lower 
social life of civic duties, and a higher individual life 
of ideal contemplation (Sewpia), or self-sufficing joy 
(Siayaiyrj), and the latter tended ever, more and more, 
to increase in importance. As the state had made no 
provision for this sort of life, education for it fell into 
the hands of private individuals, philosophers, whose in- 
fluence, earnest and noble though it often was, could not 
but tend to draw their pupils away from civic and tem- 
poral affairs, and to direct their attention upon eternal 
relations. The state was no longer the sole sphere of 
human activity. A sphere infinitely greater and more 
attractive had risen up in the imagination and was calling 
for a large share of effort. In a word, civic solidarity be- 
gan to give place to celestial solidarity, until, finally, the 
natural and civic came to be regarded as something evil, 
to be escaped from as soon as possible. Thus arose the 
idea of purification (icaSapcns) or deliverance (diraX- 
Xwyrj), which later passed into that of redemption (d-rroXv- 
T/otocrt?). The body was now regarded as a prison f or a 
tomb,! and death as the transition from appearance to 

* In later life, Plato turned his back upon this view ; but it was too 
late. See Lutoslawski, Origin and Groxvth of Plato's Logic, pp. 425 seq. 
t 4,povpa, Plato, Phcedo, 62 B. Cf . 64 C. ; 69 C. 
X Heraclitus even said, Sw/uara award, Bodies are barrows. Frag. LI. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 103 

reality. The foundation of mysticism and asceticism was 
laid: the phenomenal world and, with it, natural science, 
for the most part, were placed under the ban. 

To the old curriculum of gymnastics, music, and let- 
ters, the " New Education " added (1) Mathematics 
(geometry and astronomy*), and (2) Philosophy, the 
former being regarded as an introduction to the latter. 
Of the method of teaching geometry we have an admir- 
able specimen of Euclid; of that of teaching philosophy, 
in the dialogues of Plato, f Philosophy took institutional 
form in " Schools " (^x°^ a X which stood apart from, 
and over against, the State, like so many religious sects 
or churches — nurseries of individualism and mysticism. 

Aristotle tried to heal the breach between Plato's two 
worlds by maintaining that ideas (etSrf) exist only in in- 
dividuals^ but he left the root of mysticism untouched, 
by admitting one exception, namely, the supreme idea, or 
God, whom he conceived as an empty, formal " thinking 
of thinking," standing apart from the world, and being 
neither its creator nor its active guide. || In spite of 
this, he contributed enormously to the revival and ad- 
vance of science. He may be said to be the founder of 
the natural, political, ethical, logical, and {esthetic sci- 
ences. It was singularly unfortunate for the world that, 

* See Aristophanes, Clouds, 201 seq. 

t Aristotle, in his " exoteric" teaching, used the dialogic method. See 
Bernays, Die Dialoge des Aristoteles, in ihrem Verhcutniss zu seinen 
iibrigen Werken. 

X As we shall see, later on, these schools are the parents, not only of 
our universities, but also of the religious orders. The earliest school- 
founder was Pythagoras. 

§ Plato held to universalia ante rem, Aristotle to universalia in re, 
and the Cynics and Stoics to universalia post rem. (See Haureau, De la 
Philos. Scolastique, cap. III. ; Zeller, Philos. der Oriechen, Vol. IV., p. 
71, 2d Edit.) These distinctions will show their importance later. 

j| Metaph., XI., 7; 1072b seq. ; and cf., throughout, Elser, Die Wirk- 
ung des Aristotelischen Ootles. 



104 THE IIISTORY OF EDUCATION 

for several hundred years after his death, his influence 
was confined to a narrow circle of disciples, while that 
of Plato was widely diffused. The result was the decay 
of scientific research, and the growth of a fanciful world- 
view, which, because it was untrue, had to seek refuge 
in sacredness and, ultimately, when this did not suffice, 
in external authority. Such a view, though professing to 
be profoundly philosophical, was in reality merely myth- 
ological, and was, therefore, eminently fitted to combine 
with those hoary Oriental mythologies, with which, ow- 
ing to the conquest of Alexander and the spread of Hel- 
lenism, it was soon to come in contact. 

With Aristotle, Greek thought and, with it, Greek 
ideals and Greek education, came to an end. What is 
called Greek thought, subsequent to him, is mostly a com- 
pound of Hellenic (Platonic) mythologic idealism and 
Oriental religion, and is professed almost entirely by 
men of non-Hellenic blood — Jews, Phoenicians, Syrians, 
Arabs, etc. Its aim is no longer the discovery of truth 
upon which to found a natural social order, but the con- 
struction of a supernatural world in which to take refuge 
from the social order altogether.* The truth is, Alex- 
ander's empire, in destroying civic solidarity, made the 
endeavor after extra-civic or contra-civic solidarity, 
superhuman or subhuman culture, almost a necessity. 

With the decay of Hellenic civic culture arose Hellen- 
istic culture, whose tendencies were distinctly cosmopoli- 
tan, and which, therefore, comes under the rubric of hu- 

* Almost the only exception is Epicureanism, whose founder seems to 
have been a pure Greek ; but even it teaches man to look for satisfaction, 
not in civic life, but in subjective friendship. Stoicism, whose founder 
was plainly a Semite, in calling upon men to live "according to nature" 
forbade them to live according to human nature, which is essentially 
social and civic. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 105 

man culture. Before we pass on to this, and the educa- 
tion corresponding to it, we must cast a brief glance at 
Eoman civic culture and education. 



(3) Roman Education 

Who would command must in command find bliss : 

Enjoyment vulgarizes. 

— Goethe, Faust. 

Then none were for a party, 

But all were for the state ; 
And the rich man loved the poor, 

And the poor man loved the great. 
Then lands were fairly portioned 

And spoils were fairly sold ; 
For the Romans were like brothers 

In the brave days of old. 

— Macaulay. 

The Romans were distinguished from all other nations, not only 
by the extreme earnestness and precision with which they conceived 
their law and worked out the consequences of its fundamental prin- 
ciples, but by the good-sense which made them submit to the law, 
once established, as an absolute necessity of political health and 
strength. . . . Tbe divine law, the elder sister of the civil law, 
was the pattern on which the latter was moulded. — Wilhelm Ihne. 

The Romans were a cold, calculating, selfish people, without en- 
thusiasm or the power of awakening enthusiasm, distinguished by 
self-control and an iron will rather than by graces of character. 
They were proud, overbearing, cruel, and rapacious. — lb. 

The old Roman theology was a hard, narrow, unexpansive sys- 
tem of abstraction and personification which strove to represent in 
its pantheon the phenomena of nature, the relations of men in the 
state or in the clan, every act and feeling and incident in the life 
of the individual. But, unlike the mythologies of Hellas and the 



106 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

East, it bad no native principle of growth or adaptation to altered 
needs of society and the individual imagination. It was singularly 
wanting in awe and mystery. The religious spirit which it culti- 
vated was formal, timid, and scrupulous. — Dill, Roman Society in 
the Last Century of the Western Empire, pp. 62 seq. 

When we pass from Athens to Rome, we pass from 
poetry to prose; from an artists'-picnic to a business 
house; from a people seeking to make the present beau- 
tiful, and to enjoy it rationally and nobly, to a people 
that subordinates present enjoyment to future gain; from 
a people that lives by reason to a people that lives by 
authority. While the Athenians " rejoice before " their 
gods, the Romans keep a debtor and creditor account 
with theirs, and are very anxious that the balance shall 
always be on the right side. There is a strong resem- 
blance between the Romans and the Spartans. There are 
in both the same stern organization, the same complete 
subordination of the individual to the state, the same con- 
tempt for enjoyment and all the gentler and fairer sides 
of life. But there is this striking and important differ- 
ence: while the Spartans are held together by a severe 
and even exaggerated discipline, the Romans hold to- 
gether of their own free-will, like a company of co-opera- 
tive workmen. This accounts for much in Roman life — 
its conservativeness, prosaic practicality, exclusiveness, 
and permanence — as well as in Roman education. The 
original co-operative association, having attained success, 
and therewith certain advantages over its neighbors, was 
loath to open its doors to new-comers and equally loath to 
abandon the principles to which its first success was 
due. Hence the long struggle between patricians and 
plebeians. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 107 

Eome * seems to have arisen from a combination 
(o-vvoucmt/aos) of villages inhabited by peoples of dif- 
ferent races — Turanians, Semites, and Aryans — who at 
different times had settled upon the Septimontium. The 
Aryans were, doubtless, the dominant factor; but the 
others contributed important elements: the Turanians, 
the bulk of the religious notions and rites; the Semites, 
the prosaic practicality and thirst for power. With their 
language the Aryans, naturally, imposed their political 
forms. 

Eoman education, like Eoman life, was intensely prac- 
tical, merely preparing for the functions of domestic and 
political (including religious) life. Eoman religion was 
never an individual matter, touching the inner individual 
life; it was the combining force of family and of state. 
It naturally followed that, for long ages, there were no 
schools in Eome. The necessary education was imparted 
in the family, in the forum, and in the field. There were 
no books. Annals and laws were recorded by special 
functionaries, specially educated for the purpose. Bal- 
lads, warlike and religious songs, and laws were com- 
mitted to memory and chanted to rude, simple airs. Even 
in her best days, Eome was almost entirely innocent of 
literature, art, and science. 

In the Eoman family the father was absolute master, 
and, though the wife occupied a responsible and honored 
position, she was legally a daughter (in loco filice). The 
children might be exposed, put to death, or sold into 
slavery, at the will, of the father, f If Greek fathers 

* Originally, in all likelihood, a Semitic Rama or "high place," sacred 
to Baal, called Pales by the Romans, who celebrated to him the Palilia. 
t On the patria potestas see Institutes of Justinian. 



108 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

sought to make their sons independent as early as pos- 
sible, Eoman fathers did exactly the opposite. As a re- 
sult of rigid discipline, Eoman family life was grave, 
dignified, laborious, and god-fearing — one might almost 
say, puritanic. The children learnt, first of all, to obey 
their parents and to fear the gods. As soon as they could 
leave the nursery, the boys, instead of dividing their day 
as Athenian boys did, between the palssstra and the 
school, under careful supervision, were turned loose to 
romp, play ball, swim, ride, etc. About the age of six- 
teen, they assumed the toga virilis, were registered as 
citizens, and began to perform the duties of such — duties 
which they learnt by actual practice in field and forum, 
in the society of their elders. Meanwhile, the girls re- 
mained quietly at home with their mothers, learning the 
arts of domestic life. Nowhere, perhaps, is the Eoman 
girl's ideal better expressed than in an ancient epitaph 
on a worthy matron: 

" Stranger, my tale is briefly told ; 
O stay, and read with care. 
This gloomy tomb contains the bloom 
Of one that once was fair. 

" Her name was Claudia. To her lord 
Her heart's full love she paid. 
Two sons she had, one left on earth 
And one beside her laid. 

" Her words were mild, her manners chaste; 
Her home she ruled in peace. 
She plied the distaff and the loom. 
Now go thy way : I cease." 

The education here outlined is that of the oldest period, 
before Eome came much in contact with Greek culture. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 109 

This contact began as far back, at least, as the rise of the 
Republic, and from that time on we find a gradual infil- 
tration of literary education.* It was not, however, till 
about the middle of the third century B.C. that regular 
schools were opened. The oldest schoolmaster known to 
us was Spurius Carvilius. He and his fellows, however, 
were at a great disadvantage for want of school-books, 
there being no such thing as an available Roman litera- 
ture. In a short time this deficiency was supplied by 
the rise of a literature imitated from the Greek — the 
works of Naevius, Livius Andronicus, Ennius, Pacuvius, 
and Plautus. The Latin version of the Odyssey, by the 
second of these, now became for the Romans what the 
Homeric poems generally had long been for the Greeks. 
At the same time the knowledge of the Greek language 
became more and more an accomplishment of the upper 
classes, being imparted by slave tutors. When at last, in 
146 B.C., Greece became a Roman province, 

" Captive Greece took captive her rude conqueror, 
And brought the arts to Latium," f 

in spite of all the efforts of the elder Cato to uphold the 
old Roman rigorous discipline. % From this point on 
Roman education becomes, like education everywhere, 
Hellenistic, and hardly calls for special treatment. For 
considerable time instruction was imparted in the Greek 
language; but about 100 B.C. a Roman eques, Lucius 

* The Ephesian Hermodorus, uncle of Heraclitus, the philosopher, is 
said to have had a share in drawing up the laws of the Twelve Tables, 
451 B.C. 

t Horace. 

X Cato died in 148 B.C. His book on Education (De Liberis Edu- 
candis) has not come down to us. Despite all his efforts, he was far 
from being unaffected by Greek culture. 



110 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

iElius Prasconius Stilo, inspired by patriotism, opened a 
school in which Latin was employed, and from that time 
on the use of Greek declined. Among Praeconius's pupils 
were Varro and Cicero, who, along with Julius Caesar, 
may be called the fathers of Latinity. 

But, although the Latin language triumphed, Eoman 
education under the empire is, in all respects, Greek, 
while Eoman literature is but a rather formal and stilted 
imitation of Greek models. The studies most in favor at 
Koine were Grammar (Literature), Rhetoric, and Philos- 
ophy, the last remaining always a mere elegant accom- 
plishment. Rhetoric, by reason of its practical use, was 
the principal study. It forms the subject of the chief 
work * of the greatest of Roman educators, Quintilian, 
who, about a.d. 68, opened a school of rhetoric at Rome, 
and under Vespasian received a salary from the public 
treasury. This work gives us an outline of Roman educa- 
tion in the early centuries of our era. It tells us how 
the child is to be nursed, taught good habits of action and 
speech, instructed in reading, writing, and literature. 
Home education is deprecated and emulation in school is 
to be encouraged. The chief studies in school are Gram- 
mar — that is, Literature, consisting of Methodics and 
Histories — Music, and Astronomy. On leaving school, 
ambitious young men place themselves in the hands of 
the rhetorical teacher, under whom they learn all the 
arts, -with a view to conversation and public speaking. 
Knowledge for knowledge' sake hardly enters into the 
calculations of the Roman. With him rhetoric, the power 
of saying, takes the place of philosophy, the power of 
thinking. 

* De Institutione Oratoria. 



CIVIC EDUCATION 111 

In other respects besides this, Roman education re- 
mained un-Greek. It was essentially ungesthetic, aiming 
not at " sweetness and light," but rather at force and 
effectiveness. It was not culture, but discipline, always 
harsh, and not seldom brutal. Boys were licked black 
and blue for mispronouncing a word in reading. The 
school-sessions were long, extending, with but a brief 
recess, from early dawn to sunset. The school-rooms 
were often mere sheds, and nearly always poor and ill- 
furnished, without desks, and often without seats. As 
a state, Rome at no period of her existence took much 
interest in education: all the schools were, therefore, 
private enterprises, and, as the profession of teacher was 
despised, teaching fell into the hands of men who were 
fit for nothing else — generally freed-men, or even slaves. 
The fact that they took pay for their services brought 
them into the same social category as the carpenter and 
the shoemaker, and they were treated as these were. It 
was only in imperial times that rhetoricians, like Quin- 
tilian, enjoyed some consideration. 

It is interesting to realize that, if Rome adopted Greek 
education, this was no mere matter of accident. If her 
rule was to be universal, as she meant it to be, her culture 
had to be so likewise, and Greek culture was in those 
days the only one that could lay claim to universality, 
the reason being that it rested upon reason, which i3 
universal, and not upon tradition, which is local and na- 
tional. But of this more in the next chapter. 



BOOK II. 

HUMAN EDUCATION 



HUMAN EDUCATION 

INTRODUCTORY 

I am a man : I hold nothing human alien to me — Menander. 

Nature ordains that a man should wish the good of every man, 
whoever he may be, for the simple reason that he is a man— 
Cicero, De Offic, III., 6. 

We are members of one great body. Nature made us relatives 
when she begat us from the same materials and for the same 
destiny. She planted in us mutual love and fitted us for social life. 
— Seneca, Epist. xcv. 

What is Roman knight or freedman or slave ? They are but 
names having their origin in ambition or wrong. — Id., Epist. xxxi. 

You are a citizen and a part of the world. . . . The duty of 
a citizen is in nothing to consider his own interest distinct from 
that of others, as hand or foot, if they possessed reason and under- 
stood the law of nature, would do and wish nothing that had not 
some relation to the rest of the body. — Epictetus. 

As Antonine, my country is Rome ; as a man, the world. — Mar- 
cus Aurelius.* 

People at the civic grade of culture draw a sharp 
distinction between themselves and their neighbors, 
with implied superiority on their own side. Each is 
held together by its own gods, its own laws and cus- 
toms, its own language, literature, and memories, and 
looks down upon all the others. The Jew places him- 

*See Lecky, Hist, of European Morals, VoL I., pp. 253 seq. 
115 



116 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

self above the gentile; the Greek himself above the 
barbarian, and so on. Even when peoples of different 
races and tongues are united under a common govern- 
ment, there is always one ruling race which holds the 
others in subjection and contempt. There is as yet no 
feeling or recognition of a common, all-embracing hu- 
manity. Nor, indeed, can there be until the distinc- 
tively human element in humanity is brought into 
prominence. This element is Eeason, in which all men 
share. So long as men live by tradition, by laws sup- 
posed to have been divinely given to particular men, or 
by mere use and wont, so long they have no common 
bond; so long they stand opposed to each other in na- 
tions and groups. In proportion as Reason rules, they 
unite, and the result is human culture, in the attempt 
to realize which the world has been engaged for over 
two thousand years, so far, it is sad to think, with but 
very partial success. The reasons for this we shall try 
to make clear. 



DIVISION I. 

SUPEBNATURAL BEGINNINGS OF 
HUMANISM 

CHAPTER I. 

HELLENISTIC EDUCATION 

It had been the fond dream of Alexander to found a universal 
empire, which should be held together not merely by the unity of 
the government, but also by the unity of language, customs, and 
civilization. All the Oriental races were to be saturated with 
Hellenic culture, and to be bound together into one great whole by 
means of this intellectual force. . . . All Western Asia, in 
fact, if not among the wide masses of the population, yet certainly 
among the higher ranks of society, became thoroughly Hellenized. 
Even in Palestine about the beginning of the second century this 
movement was in full progress. — Schurek, Hist, of the Jews in the 
Time of Jesus Christ, Div. I., Vol. I., pp. 194 seq. 

It was the crowning glory of the Greek people and, 
in the last resort, of Socrates,* to have discovered rea- 
son, and thus to have made possible human culture, 
education, and moral freedom. As soon as the knowl- 
edge of this discovery spread, Greece ceased to be able 

* The Reason (Aoyos) of Heraclitus and the Intellect (vovs) of Anaxag- 
oras are nature-ordering principles, rather than sources of authority in 
man. Indeed, reason, in the Socratic sense, could not have been dis- 
covered, until the sophists had done their work of showing "nature" to 
be subjective. 

117 



118 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to live as a small polity, and claimed universal sway. 
In less than a century her sons had carried Greek edu- 
cation and culture over the whole East. We have al- 
ready seen that nearly all " Greek " philosophers after 
Aristotle were Orientals. We have now to add that they 
were no longer, strictly speaking, philosophers at all. 
The truth is, when the Greeks became dominant in the 
East, bringing with them their schools, gymnasia, the- 
atres, stadia, and the results of these, they so fascinated 
the subject peoples that these endeavored to approximate 
their conquerors by trying to translate their national 
creeds and mythologies into the universal thought-forms 
of the latter. Thus there arose those numerous com- 
pounds of Eastern mythology and Greek thought which 
we know as Hellenistic philosophy — Neo-Pythagorean- 
ism, Neo-Mazdeism,* Gnosticism, Philonism,f etc. This 
amalgamation was rendered comparatively easy by the 
semi-mythical form into which Plato, Aristotle, and 
Zeno had converted the Socratic doctrine. The " ideas " 
(iSiai) of Plato, the " forms " (eiSr)) of Aristotle, and 
the " reason " (X0709) of the Stoics are as purely myths 
as Zeus, Apollo, and Athena. They have, however, the 
advantage of not being local or national. The Hellen- 
ization of Oriental mythology consisted mainly in trans- 
lating the popular gods into the ideas of Plato and the 
Reason of the Stoics. The thoughts of Aristolle and 
Epicurus played but a small part in the process. 

Though Hellenistic culture spread over the whole 

* See Darmesteter, Introduction to Avesta (Sacred Books of the East), 
pp. iv., sqq., 2d Edit. 

+ Even the pious, Torah-bound Jews could not resist the advances of 
Hellenism ; hence the Maccabaean Wars (see Schiirer, History of the 
Jeivs in the Time of Jesus Christ, Div. I., Vol. I., pp. 194 seq.). and the 
philosophy of Koheleth. 



HELLENISTIC EDUCATION 119 

East, reaching perhaps even India, its chief centre was 
Alexandria, the city founded by, and named after, the 
great Macedonian conqueror, the city in which all the 
peoples of the East mixed and exchanged views, the city 
in which the notion of universal human brotherhood 
seems first to have taken root. Here — and this is the 
most important fact for our present purpose — Greeks 
and Jews lived on almost equal terms and learned to 
respect each other.* Here flourished the school and 
the palestra of the former and the beth-hammidrash of 
the latter. Here the Greeks became acquainted with 
the monotheism and moral earnestness of the Jews, 
while the Jews learned to appreciate the culture of the 
Greeks. Many Greeks and half-Greeks became prose- 
lytes to Judaism,f while some Jews quietly went over 
to Hellenism. The Hebrew Scriptures were translated 
into Greek (the Septuagint), and to a large extent re- 
placed the original. The Jews spoke Greek and called 
themselves by Greek names. Philo and other learned 
Jews translated the " Law " into the language of Plato 
and the Stoics, or, rather, professed to find the whole 
of Platonism and Stoicism in the Law, maintaining that 
Plato had borrowed from Moses. In order to do this 
they had to make use of the most shameless allegorisms, 
capable of making anything mean anything. \ Thus 
there was a thorough commingling of Judaism and 
Hellenism in the thought of Alexandria. In the Jewish 

* The Jews occupied two of the five quarters of Alexandria, were gov- 
erned by their own laws and their own "alabarch." See Drummond, 
Philo Judcens, Vol. I., pp. 3 seq. 

t See Schiirer, Hist, of the Jews, Div. II., Vol. II ., pp. 291 Beq. 

% See the Works of Philo, and cf . Drummond, Philo Judtrus, or Jew- 
ish Alexandrian Philosophy , passim ; Bigg, The Christian Platonists of 
Alexandria, pp. 134-51. 



120 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

schools, the Greek curriculum, which at that time com- 
prised very nearly the " Seven Liberal Arts," * was 
added to the old instruction in the Torah; nay, the 
Torah must often have been expounded in the abstract 
language of Plato, f 

*See the appendix to my Aristotle, or the Ancient Educational Ideals. 

i It is hardly probable that the Greek schools below the University 
(Museum) borrowed anything from the Jews. If they had, the fact 
would be nothing to our purpose. Bigg, ut sup., p. 41. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CHRISTIAN "CATECHETICAL SCHOOL" OF 
ALEXANDRIA 

Of incalculable importance was the Catechetical School of Alex- 
andria, in the transformation of the pagan empire into a Christian 
one, of Greek, into ecclesiastical, philosophy. In the third century, 
this school scientifically rose above paganism, at the same time 
preserving everything that was of any value in Greek science and 
culture. These Alexandrians wrote for the cultured of all the 
world : they introduced Christianity into the culture of the world. 
— Harnack, Dogmengesch., Vol. I., p. 547. 

In the Catechetical School of Alexandria the whole of Greek 
science was taught and made subservient to the ends of Christian 
apologetics. — Id. ibid. , p. 551. 

As an idealistic philosopher Origen turned the whole contest of 
the church's faith into ideas. — Id. ibid., p. 563. 

In Egypt, on the very ground which in the fourth and fifth cen- 
turies was to be the home of Christian monks, there was, long before 
them, the ascetic life of the cloister devoted to the worship of 
Serapis. The ritual has many traces of our modern ideas of devo- 
tion, and foreshadows in some respects that of the Catholic Church. 
— Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Umpire, 
p. 66. 

The religion of the Jews revolved round three con- 
cepts: (1) a One, omnipotent, creative God; (2) a 
Messiah;* (3) Holiness,! concepts which in Christianity 

* On the various meanings of this word see Bishop Westcott, Introduc. 
to the Study of the Gospels, pp. 110-73. 

t On this term see Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 140 
seq., 450 seq. 

121 



122 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

hardened into the three persons of the Holy Trinity. 
In this religion the early Christians, consisting, as they 
did, of Jews or proselytes, formed a sect, differing from 
the others mainly in the one fact that they believed the 
Messiah to have appeared, in the person of Jesus of 
Nazareth, and to be about to appear again. It was this 
Jewish Christianity, and not the gentile Christianity 
of Paul, that was first carried — it is said, by Mark the 
friend of Peter — to Alexandria. In course of time, the 
new sect was numerous and strong enough to open a 
synagogue or church* of its own, and, connected there- 
with, a school. The founder of this school is said to 
have been Athenagoras, the apologete; but it attained 
importance first under Pantaenusf about the middle of 
the second century a.d. Pantrenus was succeeded, first 
by Clement (died about 213), and then by the great 
Origen (died 254). 

As this school became, in large measure, the type 
of all Christian schools for a long period, and as it 
forms the bridge between the ancient and mediaeval edu- 
cational worlds, it deserves careful consideration. Per- 
haps I cannot do better than quote a passage from Dr. 
Bigg's Christian Platonists of Alexandria: 

" A large and rich [Christian] community, existing 
in the bosom of a great university town, could not long 
submit to exclusion from the paramount interests of 
the place. Their most promising young men attended 
the lectures of the heathen professors. Some, like Am- 
monius,J relapsed into Hellenism, some drifted into 

* In early times these terms were not distinguished. See Schiirer, 
Hist, of the Jews, Div. II., Vol. II., p. 58, note 48. 

+ A convert from Stoicism, and a man of much learning. 

X The founder of Neo-Platonism, and the teacher of both Origen and 
Plotinue. He was eurnamed Saccas. 



THE CHRISTIAN "CATECHETICAL SCHOOL" 123 

Gnosticism like Ambrosius, some like Heracles passed 
safely through the ordeal, and, as Christian priests, still 
wore the pallium or philosophers cloak, the doctor's 
gown, we may call it, of the pagan academy. Learned 
professors like Celsus, like Porphyry, began to study the 
Christian Scriptures with a cool interest in this latest 
development of religious thought, and pointed out with 
the acumen of trained critics the scientific difficulties 
of the Older Testament and the contradictions of the 
New. It was necessary to recognize, and if possible to 
profit by, the growing connection between the Church 
and the lecture-room. Hence the catechetical instruc- 
tion, which in most other communities continued to be 
given in an unsystematic way by bishop or priest, had 
in Alexandria developed about the middle of the cen- 
tury into a regular institution. 

" This was the famous Catechetical School. It still 
continued to provide instruction for those desirous of 
admission into the Church, but with this humble rou- 
tine it combined a higher and more ambitious function.* 
It was partly a propaganda, partly we may regard it as 
a denominational college by the side of a secular uni- 
versity. There were no buildings appropriated to the 
purpose. The master received the pupils in his own 
house, and Origen was often engaged till late at night 
in teaching his classes or giving private advice or in- 
struction to those who needed it. The students were 
of both sexes, of very different ages. Some were con- 
verts preparing for baptism, some idolaters seeking for 
light, some Christians reading, as we should say, for 

* "Schools of a similar description existed at Antioch, Athens, Edessa 
Nisibis ; Guerike, De Schola Alex., p. 2: Harnack, Doqmenqcschichte 
501 eeq." [Vol. I., pp. 547 seq., 2d Edit.] 



124 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

orders or for the cultivation of their understandings. 
There was as yet no rigid system, no definite classifica- 
tion of Catechumens, such as that which grew up a cen- 
tury later. The teacher was left free to deal with his 
task as the circumstances of his pupils or his own genius 
led him. But the general course of instruction pursued 
in the Alexandrian school we are fortunately able to dis- 
cover with great accuracy and fulness of detail. Those 
who were not capable of anything more were taught the 
facts of the Creed, with such comment and explanation 
as seemed desirable. Others, Origen tells us, were taught 
dialectically. The meaning of this phrase is interpreted 
for us by Gregory Thaumaturgus, one of the most il- 
lustrious and attached of Origen's disciples. At the 
outset the student's power of reasoning and exact ob- 
servation were strengthened by a thorough course of 
scientific study, embracing geometry, physiology,* and 
astronomy. After science came philosophy. The writ- 
ings of all the theological poets, and of all the philos- 
ophers except the 'godless Epicureans' were read and 
expounded. The object of the teacher was no doubt in 
part controversial. He endeavored to prove the need of 
revelation by dwelling on the contradictions and imper- 
fections of all human systems, or he pointed out how 
the partial light vouchsafed to Plato and Aristotle was 
but an earnest of the dayspring from on high. But the 
attitude of Clement or Origen toward Greek thought 
was not controversial in any petty or ignoble sense. 
They looked up to the great master-minds of the Hel- 
lenic schools with a generous admiration, and infused 
the same spirit into their disciples. 

* That is, of course, Physics, or Natural Philosophy. 



THE CHRISTIAN "CATECHETICAL SCHOOL" 125 

"Philosophy culminated in ethics, and at this point 
began the dialectic training properly so called. The 
student was called upon for a definition of one of those 
words that lie at the root of all morality, Good or Evil, 
Justice or Law, and his definition became the theme 
of a close discussion conducted in the form of question 
and answer. In the course of these eager systematic 
conversations every prejudice was dragged to light, 
every confusion unravelled, every error convicted, the 
shame of ignorance was intensified, the love of truth 
kindled into a passion. So far the course pursued did 
not differ essentially from that familiar to the heathen 
schools. But at this point the characteristic features 
of the Christian seminary come into view. We find 
them in the consistency and power with which virtue 
was represented as a subject not merely for speculation, 
but for practice — in the sympathy and magnetic per- 
sonal attraction of the teacher — but above all in the 
theology, to which all other subjects of thought were 
treated as ancillary " (pp. 41-43). 

It is to the last clauses of this quotation that we must 
pay special attention. What distinguished the Chris- 
tian from the pagan schools was the fact that in the 
former all education revolved round Theology and Ee- 
ligion, as the means to eternal salvation. The Greeks 
educated for this life; the Christians for the life to 
come. In Christian education the national theology of 
the Jews held the chief place, but was rationalized, and 
thereby universalized, by means of Greek science. Ori- 
entalism triumphed over Hellenism: Reason became the 
handmaid of Faith. This fact cannot be too strongly in- 
sisted upon, because it furnishes the key to the educa- 



126 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tion of the entire Middle Age, in which the supernatural 
plays the chief part, and science and nature become 
thralls.* 

But though Orientalism triumphed over Hellenism in 
the Christian schools of the Greek world, Hellenism and 
science were by no means despised. Great men, like 
Clement and Origen, the founders of philosophic Chris- 
tian theology, held them in high esteem. Nay, the 
latter even maintained that the true, the spiritual 
Christianity was that which was grasped in the abstract 
forms of Greek thought (yvwais), the historical Chris- 
tianity of the New Testament, and Christ himself, being 
merely a concession to the natural man, for whom the 
divine had to be revealed in the flesh (Trio-ris). He 
thus came perilously near dropping the historical ele- 
ment in Christianity altogether,! as did his teacher, 
Ammonius, and fellow-pupil, Plotinus, the founders of 
Neo-Platonism.;]; Indeed, it is not unlikely that, but 
for the influence of Western or Eoman Christianity, the 
Christianity of the Greek world might have been a sort 
of Neo-Platonism, in which Hellenism would have held 
the first place. But of this more in the next chapter. 

* On the entire relation of Christianity to Hellenism see Hatch, 
The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church 
(Hibhert Lectures for 1888). 

t His twofold Christianity was condemned by the Church. See Bigg, 
Christian Platonists, pp. 276 seq.; Denzinger, jEnchiridio?i Symbolorum 
et Definitionum, pp. 57-62. 

\ Neo-Platonism, like Manichaeism and Mazdeism, is a form of Messian- 
ism or Redemption. See Harnack, Dogmengesehichte, Vol. I., pp. 719- 
37. On Manichaeism see ibid., pp. 737-51. 



CHAPTER III. 

PATRISTIC EDUCATION 

Nature and intellect — they are not named to Christiana. 

For doing so we burn atheists, 

Because such speeches are most dangerous. 

Nature is sin, intellect is devil. 

Between them they foster doubt, 

Their misshapen mongrel offspring. 

— Goethe, Faust, Pt. II., Act I. 

The conversion of Constantine meant nothing less than the de- 
feat of the State and the victory of the Church, the defeat of the 
mundane culture of the classical period and the victory of the super- 
sensual culture of the coming time. The Christianization of the 
State involved its overthrow. The world-denying religiosity of 
Christianity had absorbed the world-ruling thought of the Roman 
Empire. — Von Eicken, Mittelalt. Weltansch., p. 119. 

The Oriental cults satisfied emotional cravings, which found no 
stimulus for devotion in the arid abstractions of the old Latin 
creed or in the brilliant anthropomorphism of Greece. They 
aroused and cultivated, often to a dangerous degree, intense and 
ecstatic feeling. In their mysteries, if they did not teach a higher 
morality, they raised the worshipper above the level of old conven- 
tional conformity and satisfied in some way the longing for com- 
munion with the deity and assurance of a life beyond the grave. — 
Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Umpire, 
pp. 63 seq. 

A group of ideas — God, Messiah, Holiness — which 
had originally grown up among the oppressed and ex- 
iled Jews with reference to restoration to their native 
land and to political power, had among the Christians 

127 



128 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

been transformed into a theory of fallen man's restora- 
tion to God in a kingdom beyond the clouds,* and this 
theory had found philosophical expression through con- 
tact with Greek thought. Thus arose the dogmatic 
theology of the Church Fathers, in which the dogmas 
received their material and authority from Judaism, 
their universal form and metaphysical import from 
Hellenism, f In lands where Greek language and thought 
prevailed, the Hellenic, philosophical element con- 
tinually threatened to swamp the Jewish and give rise 
to a purely rational religion (Gnosticism); but else- 
where, and especially in Latin-speaking lands, the case 
was different. After the fall of Jerusalem (a.d. 70), 
the centre of Judaic \ or non-Hellenic Christianity was 
Eome. In the powerful Roman community, and in the 
numerous communities dependent upon it, the Jewish, 
traditional, non-philosophic element steadily kept the 
upper hand, and did its best to repel the Hellenic ele- 
ment. This is clearly shown by the " Apostles' Creed " 
— originally the baptismal formula of the Roman com- 
munity — which does not contain a vestige of Greek 
thought or of metaphysical theory. But even when, in 
the interests of a catholic or universal faith, it accepted 
the Nicene Creed, full of Greek thought and subtlety, 
it did not for long allow that thought to master it, but 
remained true to Orientalism and revelation. § In pro- 

*A Messiah who said "My Kingdom is not of this world" could not, 
of course, be accepted by orthodox Jews, who expected a kingdom of 
this world. 

+ Rome supplied the organism and diffusive power. 

% Ebionitism or purely Jewish Christianity is not here meant. It had 
retired to Petra, in the desert, before a.d. 70. 

§ This is clearly shown by the fact that it succeeded in upholding the 
doctrine of the resurrection of the " flesh," a doctrine entirely repugnant 
to the Greeks and their followers. 



PATRISTIC EDUCATION 129 

portion as the Roman community's influence widened 
and deepened, and the Roman bishop assumed authority, 
in the same degree the Jewish traditional element 
gained ascendancy, and Greek Gnosticism was extruded; 
in a word, faith took the place of science; the super- 
natural of the natural. Under such circumstances sci- 
ence and learning, of course, languished, and at last 
virtually died out, leaving the field to faith, which, 
when dissociated from science, always degenerates into 
gross superstition. The Latin fathers, unlike the Greek, 
almost from the first manifested dislike and opposition 
to Pagan learning. Tertullian (a.d. 160-240?) would 
suppress it altogether as dishonoring to God; Augustine 
(354-430), once a good scholar, was ready, after his 
conversion, to turn his back upon pagan learning, de- 
claring that " it is the uneducated who carry the King- 
dom of heaven." Jerome (340-420), though sometimes 
recommending the study of pagan poets, even for 
women, on one occasion speaks of their work as mere 
food of demons, and his scheme of female education 
is suitable only for nuns of the strictest order, such as 
he superintended in the convents of Bethlehem. This 
attitude of the Latin fathers is easily comprehended, 
when we remember (1) that pagan learning was inex- 
tricably bound up with the pagan ideal of mundane, 
civic life, so utterly at variance with the supermundane, 
spiritual life which the Church sought to cultivate; (2) 
that, in their time, that learning, always merely formal, 
and as devoid of scientific content as incapable of im- 
parting intellectual and moral stimulus, had sunk down 
into a dull, sapless routine, turning out chattering, 
versifying pedants, without moral earnestness, love of 
9 



130 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

truth, or literary taste. Pagan learning had died of 
inanity before Christian supernaturalism dug its grave.* 
The Rule of St. Benedict, a man of noble Roman descent 
(480-543?), is already written in barbarous Latin, and 
his biographer, Gregory the Great (died 604), severely 
reproved a bishop for giving instruction in Grammar 
(Literature), declaring that the divine word was inde- 
pendent of its rules. " My brother," he says, " I have 
learnt what I cannot think of without pain and shame, 
that you have thought proper to teach Grammar to cer- 
tain persons. Learn then how sad and awful a thing it 
is that a bishop should deal with things, of which even 
a layman ought to be ignorant." 

But, with all its contempt for the learning of van- 
quished paganism, Christianity could not well exist 
without some sort of intellectual culture, however 
slight. Hence, from time to time, efforts were made 
to keep alive the traditions of education, especially by 
converts who, in their youth, had attended the old 
grammar and rhetorical schools. Martianus Capella, an 
African rhetorician, probably contemporary with Au- 
gustine, wrote a sort of Encyclopaedia of Education, a 
fantastic work, entitled The Nuptials of Mercury and 
Philology. This for hundreds of years was the text- 
book of the Seven Liberal Arts, which appear here for 
the first time. The popularity of this miserable com- 
pend throws a lurid light on the condition of learning 

*Apellinaris Sidonius (431-484 ?), the princely Bishop of Auvergne, 
who, like others of his class, was very proud of his pagan learning, and 
inclined to make high literary pretensions, notes the decay of learning in 
his time, declaring that "young people no longer study, teachers are 
without pupils, learning pines and dies." See Dill, Roman Society 
in the Last Century of the Western Empire, p. 167, and the whole of 
Bk. V. 



PATRISTIC EDUCATION 131 

in the centuries after the fifth. Boetius (470--524?), 
" the last of the Romans," did his best, by means of 
translations from the Greek and other works, to recom- 
mend serious study to his countrymen.* St. Benedict, 
in his Rule, laid upon his monks the duty of reading 
during some part of every day, and Cassiodorus (480- 
575), the favorite of Theodoric, spent the last thirty 
years of his life mostly in the preparation of educa- 
tional manuals, many of which still exist. Isidore of 
Seville, who died about 636, did much the same thing. 
Of his many extant works the most important is his 
Origimim sive Etymologiarum Libri XX., a compen- 
dious Encyclopaedia of all the learning of his day. 
Finally, in Britain, the Venerable Bede (673-735) did 
his best to rescue for his countrymen what learning still 
remained in the world, in the hope of better days to 
come.f 

But, in spite of all these efforts, the thick cloud of 
superstition and ignorance sank, heavier and heavier, 
over what had once been the Roman Empire, and what 
was now the domain of the Roman Catholic Church. 
The deepest darkness was reached in the eighth cen- 
tury, when learning had almost entirely vanished from 
continental Europe, and had taken what seemed a last 

* There is now hardly any doubt that Boetius, despite his pagan De 
ConHolrttione Philosophies, was a Christian. See Harnack, Dogrneuqesch. , 
Vol. III. , p. 30, note 3. 

t At the abbey of Wearmouth, Bede "enjoyed advantages which could 
not perhaps have been found anywhere else in Europe at the time ; per- 
fect access to all the existing sources of learning in the West. Nowhere 
else could he acquire at once the Irish, the Roman, the Gallican, and the 
Canterbury learning ; the accumulated stores of books which Benedict 
[Biscop] had bought at Rome and at Vienne ; or the disciplinary instruc- 
tion drawn from the monasteries on the Continent, as well as from the 
Irish missionaries." — Bishop Stubbs, article Bede, in Diet, of Christ. 
JBiog., quoted in West's Alcuin, pp. 29 seq. 



132 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

refuge in the Far West, in the British Isles, especially 
Ireland, and in the Far East, in Syria, where the 
Catholic Church had little or no influence. From these 
remote regions it returned in due time, by different 
routes and through different media, to its old seats. A 
movement started by Irish and English monks in the 
last years of the eighth century was met, three or four 
centuries later, by a movement originating in the schools 
of Syria and introduced into Europe by the apostles of 
victorious Islam. Before we speak of these, and the 
results of them, it will be well to consider Muslim 
Education. 

First of all, however, a word of warning. Those who 
are disposed to blame the Church severely for allowing 
education to lapse, and superstition to run riot, should 
remember two things: (1) that the inroads of the 
Xorthern barbarians were to blame for much that is 
laid at the Church's door; (2) that the old education 
was hopelessly bound up with a narrow, bigoted Boman 
nationalism, which it was one of the main objects of 
the Church to break down in favor of a universal hu- 
manism. We may declaim against the " Dark Ages " 
as much as we like — and there is some reason for such 
declamation — but we should not forget that it was un- 
der cover of their darkness that the idea of a universal 
human brotherhood, conceived in ancient times, was 
born into the world of reality. It is true that the citi- 
zenship of this brotherhood was supposed, at first, to 
be in heaven with its father, and this had a sad effect 
upon earthly affairs; but in due time, with the revival 
of learning and the rehabilitation of reason, it descended 
to the earth, and the modern world is the result. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MUSLIM EDUCATION 

Read, in the name of thy Lord who created — Created man of 
concreted blood. — Read, by thy Lord most gracious, who taught the 
use of the pen — Taught man what he knoweth not. — Qoran, XCVI. , 
1 seq. (Muhammad's earliest revelation). 

The different Arab tribes had different religions. . . . There 
were some among them who spoke of the resurrection, and believed 
that the man whose camel was killed over his grave would rise up 
riding, while the man whose camel was not so killed would rise up 
walking. And as to the learning of the Arabs, which they used to 
boast about, it was confined to a knowledge of their language, a 
regulation of their speech, composition of poems, and compiling of 
speeches ; and, along with this, a knowledge of the times and places 
of the rising and setting of the constellations, and an acquaintance 
with the libration of the stars, and with their sending of rain, as far 
as such could be attained by an extraordinary degree of care and 
length of experience. Such knowledge was sought on account of 
its practical bearing on the affairs of life, and not from any scientific 
interest. As to knowledge of philosophy, God did not endow them 
with any of it, or make their nature suitable for taking any trouble 
about it. This was their condition under paganism. — Abo 'l Feda. 

For the last time in Arab history, Al Ghazzali, to a certain de- 
gree, avails himself of the right of free speculation, in order, in 
desperation, to betray it into the hands of faith. . . . Like a 
despairing sceptic, he leaps, Avith suicidal intent, into the All-God, 
in order to kill all artificial reflection. — Gosche, Ghazzalis Lebenu. 
Werke, pp. 242 seq. 

By the year 600 a.d., the triumph of the Oriental ele- 
ment in Christianity had well-nigh banished learning 

133 



134 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and education from the domains of the Eoman Church, 
giving place to a gloomy, unquestioning faith which sank 
ever deeper and deeper in the mire of superstition. What 
enlightenment survived had found a home beyond the 
limits of the Eoman Empire — in Ireland, in the extreme 
West; in Syria, in the Far East. Of Irish learning we 
shall speak later on. 

Syria, with its cities of Antioch, Edessa, Harran, 
Nisibis, etc., had, like the rest of the East, been sub- 
jected to the influence of Greek culture and learning 
soon after the time of Alexander. For Greek philosophy, 
particularly Platonism, the cultivated Syrians had shown 
a decided taste, combining it with their own mythology 
into a mongrel and fantastic creed, which later on be- 
came the parent of Christian mysticism.* In Christian 
times, when the narrow fanaticism of the imperial 
church more and more discountenanced learning and free 
thought, Greek scholars and thinkers fled beyond its 
jurisdiction into Syria, where learning still had a foot- 
hold in the schools of Edessa and Nisibis,f and added to 
the distinction of these. Especially was this the case in 
the fifth and sixth centuries. When the theology of 
Nestorius and the Antiochene (Syrian) school was con- 
demned by the Church (431 a.d.), many of its adherents 
fled to Nisibis, and, under the leadership of Barsumas, 

* On the Platonized paganism of the Harranians, see Chwolsohn's Die 
Ssabier, Vol. L, pp. 301-541. Very many of the post-Aristotelean 
" Greek " philosophers were Syrians, especially after the Christian era. 

+ "The intellectual centre of the East Syrian - Persian Church, the 
school of Edessa, with its offshoots in Nisibis, stands in close relations 
with Antioch. But in this region there now begins a most lively literary 
activity in the Syrian language. To the partly older translations of the 
Bible are added numerous translations of Greek ecclesiastical treatises, 
as well as original productions. The founder of this Syrian literature 
is the Mesopotamian Ephraem, who died in 379." — Miiller, Kirchenge- 
xchichte, Vol. I., p. 196, 



MUSLIM EDUCATION 135 

rent the Syrian Church away from Catholicism, and gave 
the school of that city a fresh importance. " In the school 
of Nisibis the Church possessed an institution which for 
centuries secured her a system of higher education, and, 
therewith, an important social and political position. To 
the older literature, consisting of translations, there was 
added, from the middle of the fifth century onward, a 
large number of philosophic, scientific, and medical 
treatises belonging to Greek antiquity, especially the 
works of Aristotle.* Through these Greek wisdom and 
learning, clothed in Syrian attire, found a home on these 
borders of Christendom." f 

Thus it was that, in the centuries from the fifth to the 
ninth, the chief seats of learning were in the cities of 
Syria. But before it could be restored to the old culture- 
lands of Europe, there was required a new social and 
religious movement, capable of rousing the Catholic 
Church from its " dogmatic slumbers." Such a move- 
ment was Islam. 

Muhammad (5 70-632 a.d.), the originator of this, had, 
as a young man, travelled through Arabia and Syria, and 
there had come in contact with Jews, Ebionite and Nes- 
torian Christians, and Sabians (Baptists), all of them 
"peoples of the book," that is, peoples possessing, and 
bowing before, certain written records, which they be- 
lieved to be authoritative revelations from a supreme 
Lord. Having become intensely convinced that what his 
own bookless, lordless, ever-warring people needed, in 
order to hold them together, and give them strength, was 

* The Nestorians, and, indeed, the Antiochene Theological School, were 
deeplv imbued with Aristotelianism. The Nestorian " heresy " was 
largely due to it. 

tMiiller, Kirvhengeschichte, Vol. I., pp. 278 seq. 



136 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

a book and a lord, he set to work, with more or less con- 
scious intent, to supply both. With his ardent, somewhat 
hysteric, nature, he easily came to believe that revelations 
from the " Lord of the Worlds " had been vouch- 
safed to him.* The result was the Qoran, a strange, 
chaotic, tiresome book, composed of Jewish, Christian, 
Sabian, and Arab elements, with a distinct preponder- 
ance of the first. It was not reduced to its present form 
till some time after his death, f 

Muhammad's enterprise was an unparalleled success. 
His rigid, fatalistic monotheism, inculcated with the 
earnestness of a self-confident prophet, and not seldom 
at the point of the sword, was just what the Arabs needed. 
Between the date of the Hijrah (622) and that of his 
death (632), the whole of Arabia was converted to Islam, 
and prepared to march under one banner to the conquest 
of the world. 

So long as Islam was confined to unreflecting, unphil- 
osophic Arabs, that is, so long as it remained a mere 
faith, it needed no support from learning, and called for 
no special education. The " signs " (verses) of the 
Qoran could be communicated by word of mouth, and 
committed to memory; and all truth not contained in 
these was vain. Letters were not necessary, and, indeed, 
it is almost certain that Muhammad himself could neither 
read nor write. When, however, Islam was carried by 
the sword beyond the bounds of Arabia, into the lands 
of ancient culture, Syria (635), Babylonia (637), As- 
syria (640), Egypt (642), etc., the case was different. 

*The earliest of these, dating from A.r>. 611, is placed at the head of 
this chapter. It clearly shows his chief intent, 
t See Noldeke, Geschichte des Qordns, throughout. 



MUSLIM EDUCATION 137 

Before it could hope for acceptance from the inhabitants 
of these, most of whom were Christians, it had, like 
Christianity, to clothe itself in the universal forms of 
Greek thought, and recommend itself to reason. This 
was done to some extent in Damascus, but afterwards, to 
a far greater extent, in the cities of Iraq — Bagdad, Basra, 
Kufa, etc. Here the works of the Greek philosophers,* 
physicians, and mathematicians were translated into 
Arabic,! partly through the medium of Syriac,! partly, 
perhaps, directly from the Greek. Schools, rivalling, 
and even surpassing, those of Syria, were established, and 
great physicians, mathematicians, and philosophers be- 
gan to appear. Famous among them were Al Kindi 
(about 800-870), Al Farabi (a Turk, 880-950 ±), Ibn 
Sina (Avicenna, 980-1037). Thus, from about the mid- 
dle of the ninth century to the beginning of the twelfth, 
the great centres of learning in the world were the Mus- 
lim schools of Iraq. The effort on the part of the leaders 
of these schools to rationalize the doctrines of Islam, had 
a strong tendency to undermine its supernatural author- 
ity, and to substitute for it a sort of gnostic mysticism, 
such as had long been current among the Syrian Chris- 
tians^ This naturally aroused the suspicion and op- 
position of the fanatical Arabs, who finally succeeded in 
putting an end to the movement, and compelling learn- 
ing and reason to migrate to the Far West, to the Muslim 

* Especially those of the Syrian favorite, Aristotle, who thus became 
for the Arabs, "the philosopher," simply. 

t See Steinschneider, Die arabischen Uebersetzungen aus dem Oriech- 
ische?i, Leipzig, 1897. 

X See Steinschneider, ut supra, p. 6. The chief translators seem to have 
been Nestorian Christians and Harranian pagans. 

§ Mysticism is at home in Syria. See Frothingham, Stephen Bar 
Sudaili, the Syrian Mystic* and the Book of Hierotheos. Leyden, 
1886. 



138 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

cities of Spain. But ere this took place, the scholars of 
Iraq had drawn up a scheme of education which, for com- 
pleteness and thoroughness, looks in vain for an equal. 
It was due to a small number of earnest, high-minded 
men, forming a society called the " Brothers of Sincer- 
ity " (Ikhii'dn us Safa'), whose aims were, in the inter- 
est of truth and righteousness, to combat the fatalism and 
fanaticism of Islam, to impart as complete an education 
as the science of the time rendered possible, and, on the 
basis of this, to initiate a perfect, " sincere," social order 
of the Pythagorean type. In other words, they undertook 
to render the harsh, crude superstition of the Qoran in- 
nocuous by transmuting it, through absorption, into the 
Neo-Platonic Aristotelianism then popular in the East. 
This system drew its doctrines partly from the genuine 
works of Aristotle, and partly from certain spurious trea- 
tises bearing his name, but really due to the Neo-Platon- 
ists, and containing doctrines widely different from his — 
in fact, a whole system of evolutionary agathism, gov- 
erned by spiritual laws. Chief among these treatises was 
the so-called " Theology of Aristotle," * an abstract of 
the last three " Enneads " of Plotinus, made, apparently, 
by Porphyry, in Syriac, for his Syrian countrymen toward 
the end of the third century a.d., and translated into 
Arabic first of all philosophic works. Its contents largely 
determined the whole subsequent course of Arabic, and 
later, of Jewish and Christian thought, f 

This system is laid down in an Encyclopaedia, which 
must have been written about the year 1000 a.d., and 

* Translated into German by Dieterici, Leipzig, 1883. 

t Much of this and the following paragraphs is an abbreviation of my 
article "The Brothers of Sincerity," in the International Journal of 
JUthics, July, 1898. 



MUSLIM EDUCATION 139 

which was printed in Calcutta, for the first time in 1812, 
and again in 1842, in four large volumes.* The work is 
divided into fifty-one tracts, which again are arranged 
under four heads: 

(I) Propedeutic and Logic, 13 treatises; 

(II) Natural Sciences, 17 treatises; 

(III) The Rational World-Soul, 10 treatises; 

(IV) Eevealed Law, 11 treatises. 

In this arrangement we have an ascent from the formal 
and abstract to the real and concrete. The introduction 
of revelation distinguishes it from all Greek classifica- 
tions. To pass to details: 

(I) Propedeutic and Logic 

No. 1 deals with number, its essence and multiplicity, 
showing that the form of number in the soul corresponds 
to form in material things, and that the doctrine of num- 
ber is the spring of all science and wisdom (Pythagorean- 
ism). — No. 2 treats of Geometry, and aims at enabling 
the soul to grasp pure forms, apart from matter (Platon- 
ism). — No. 3 deals with Astronomy, and shows the com- 
position of the stellar world. Its purpose is to rouse the 
soul to a longing for its proper home among the spheres. 
Here we have the very ancient theory which identifies 
spiritual elevation with distance from the centre of the 
earth, itself regarded as the centre of the universe, a 
theory which pervades the entire Middle Age, and finds 
classical expression in the Comedy of Dante. — No. 4 

* It has, for the most part, been translated into German by Professor 
Dieterici of Berlin, and published in a number of separate volumes. See 
the preface to his Die Philosophie der Araber im X. Jahrhwidert n. 
Chr., Leipzig, 1876, 1879. 



140 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

treats of Geography, showing that the earth is a sphere, 
and giving reasons why the soul descended from its true 
home into this world (cf. No. 50). — No. 5 deals with 
Music, showing that the measures of music are so many 
medicines for the soul, just as the different drugs are for 
the body, and that the revolving spheres, by rubbing 
against each other, produce tones and melodies. It aims 
to inspire the soul to ascend through the melodious 
spheres, to meet the spirits of prophets, martyrs, and 
mystic seers. — No. 6 relates to Geometric Number or 
Quantity, that is, to the theory of Symmetry and iEsthet- 
ics (Fine Arts). — No. 7 treats of the different Liberal 
Arts or Sciences, and guides the soul to a unitary concep- 
tion of the world (Encyclopaedia of the Sciences). — No. 8 
deals with the Practical Arts. In doing so, it reveals to 
the soul its own substance, as author of the arts, and its 
relation to the body and its members, which are merely 
instruments of the creative soul (Encyclopaedia of the 
Arts). — No. 9 examines Temperaments and Character, 
with a view to enable the soul to attain the proper mood 
and develop a perfect character (Ethics). — These nine 
tracts present a bird's-eye view of the field or matter of 
Science. The next four deal with Logic, or the form of 
science. — No. 10 deals with Porphyry's Introduction 
(EZaayayyrj) on the five " words " — Genus, Species, Dif- 
ference, Property, and Accident. — No. 11 discusses Aris- 
totle's ten Categories. — No. 12 his De Interpretatione 
(the Proposition). — No. 13 his Analytics (Syllogism and 
Method of Scientific Proof). Its purpose is to make the 
soul aware of its own forms and faculties. 



MUSLIM EDUCATION 141 

(II) The Natural Sciences 

No. 14 (1) treats of Matter, Form, Space, Time, and 
Motion, and is based on Aristotle's Physics. — No. 15 (2) 
is devoted to the General Form of the Physical World. 
Here, as in I. 3, we have the mediaeval theory of the uni- 
verse, according to which the " Throne of God " is in the 
outermost sphere.* It shows that all action in the uni- 
verse is due to the universal soul, acting in obedience to 
God. — No. 16 (3) treats of Genesis and Decay, that is, 
of the four elements, and their transmutation into each 
other under the influence of the stars and revolving 
spheres (Mediaeval substitute for Chemistry). — No. 17 
(4) deals with Meteorology, and is based on Aristotle's 
Meteorologica. — No. 18 (5) is devoted to Mineralogy, 
enumerating the different minerals and trying to account 
for their origin. Its purpose is to show that the first 
product of the universal soul is the sublunary world, and 
that in this the partial souls (all individual souls are parts 
of the universal soul) begin their career. Starting in 
minerals at the earth's centre, they advance, through 
plants and animals, up to man, and thence rise, through 
the superlunary spheres, as angels, up to union with God. 
Here we have the Arab doctrine of evolution, which 
hardly differs from the Darwinian, except in not recog- 
nizing the " struggle for existence " as an agent in the 
process, f Instead of this, the older theory puts the nat- 
ural desire of all beings to return to their source. In this 
tract and in the following, the " Theology of Aristotle " 

♦SeeQoran. II.. 256. 

t See Dieterici, Der Darwinismus im zehnten und neunxehnten Jahr- 
hundert. Leipzig, 1878. 



142 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

is largely drawn upon (Evolutionism). — No. 19 (6) deals 
with the Essence of Nature, and the manner in which it 
acts upon the four elements, producing the three king- 
doms of nature. Its purpose is to show the action of the 
universal soul, and its relation to the spheral intelli- 
gences. — No. 20 (7) is devoted to Botany, showing how 
the various plants are pervaded by the plant-soul, how 
they spring up and grow, and what their uses are. Stress 
is laid upon the fact that there is no break between the 
mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds. — No. 21 (8) treats 
of Zoology, following Aristotle mainly. The highest of 
the animals is man, who forms the link between them and 
the angels, the bridge between hell and heaven.* — The 
next nine tracts deal with man, as a physical, sensuous 
being. — No. 22 (9) investigates the structure of the hu- 
man body, Anatomy, and finds that man is a microcosm, 
a state, in which the soul is king, the representative of 
God on earth, a book written by God's own hand. In 
knowing himself, man knows God. — No. 23 (10) treats 
of Sense-perception and the Perceived, and contains a 
whole physiological theory of cognition. It shows how 
the senses seize their percepts and carry them to the fac- 
ulty of imagination, whose organ is in the front part of 
the brain, whence they pass on to the faculty of judg- 

* This tract contains a delightful story entitled "The Case of the 
Animals vs. Man before the King of the Genii." The scene is laid on an 
island in the Indian Ocean. The animals, claimed by men as slaves, 
plead their own cause, and present a picture of human injustice and 
cruelty that is truly appalling. Men are defeated at every point, and the 
case would go against them, but for the fact of their immortality. On the 
ground of this, that men are ends in themselves, the king of the genii 
counsels the animals to serve them, but strongly enjoins on men to treat 
them kindly, and not overtax them. The deep human feeling of this 
story bearB testimony to the high culture of the "Brothers of Sincerity." 
Translated by Dieterici under the title, Der Streit zwisehen Thie.r and 
Memch, Berlin, 1858. 



MUSLIM EDUCATION 143 

merit, in the middle part of the brain, where they are 
again distinguished and seized in their true essence. 
Hence, again, they pass on to the faculty of retention, in 
the hinder part of the brain, where they lie ready to be 
recalled into consciousness by reminiscence. From this 
they proceed to the faculty of speech, which lies above 
the tongue, and by which they are translated into words, 
which, when accompanied by meanings, issuing from 
the soul, form significant speech. Hence, also, they pro- 
ceed to the faculty of action, whose organs are the hands. 
These record them in books, to be preserved for future 
generations. Thus the experience of the race is accumu- 
lated and preserved in literature. — No. 24 (11) deals 
with the Process of Generation, Conception, and Birth, 
the union of the soul with the embryo, and the influ- 
ence of the stars upon the temperament and character of 
the child. Here we have a whole system of Astrology, as 
affecting human character. — No. 25 (12) treats of Man 
as a Microcosm, in form similar to the Macrocosm, and 
having equivalents to the angels, genii, satans, and ani- 
mal spirits of the latter, and shows that he resumes in 
himself the corporeal and spiritual worlds and the mean- 
ing of all that exists. — No. 26 (13) treats of the Partial 
Soul, showing how it grows through the human body, 
and how it may, before or after death, become an angel. 
— No. 27 (14) investigates the Limits of Human Knowl- 
edge, and shows that man may attain to a knowledge of 
his Creator. — No. 28 (15) treats of Life and Death and 
the meaning of them, showing why the rational soul is 
united with the body till death, which is to be welcomed 
as a spiritual birth. — No. 29 (16) considers the Nature of 
Spiritual and Bodily Pain and Pleasure, and how these 



144 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

are felt by disembodied spirits. — No. 30 (17) treats of 
the Nature and Function of Language, and shows how 
there came to be different languages. 

Having thus obtained a description of sensible nature, 
we next arise to a consideration of its system, as an ex- 
pression of reason and a norm of ethical life. It is a char- 
acteristic of all mediaeval thought from the days of the 
Neo-Platonists onwards, that, in making the system of 
the visible world a manifestation of goodness, reason, and 
soul, it makes it ethical. Its universe is an emanation 
from God, diminishing in intensity as, by receding from 
him, it divides into many. The nearer anything is to the 
One, the higher is its grade of being. He (1) is above 
subsistence, completion, perfection. From Him ema- 
nate (2) Reason, subsistent, complete, perfect; through 
Reason (3) Soul, subsistent and complete; through both of 
these (4) Primal Matter, which is merely subsistent. God 
is " the One, the Pure," standing to the universe in the 
same relation as unity to number. Reason, answering to 
duality, is, because it emanates from God, who is; it sub- 
sists, because God continually pours upon it His overflow 
of good; it is complete, because it accepts this overflow; 
it is perfect, because it communicates this overflow to the 
Soul. The Soul subsists, because it emanates from Rea- 
son, which subsists; it is complete, because Reason pours 
upon it the overflow received from God; it is not perfect, 
because it cannot again communicate this overflow to 
Primal Matter, for the reason that this, not being com- 
plete, cannot receive it. The Soul, therefore, finds itself 
in this position, that, unless it can make matter complete, 
it can never itself be perfect. Its whole effort, therefore, 
is to complete matter. In its endeavor to pour out the 



MUSLIM EDUCATION 145 

divine overflow upon it, it creates the physical universe, 
whose incompleteness is shown by its motion; for the 
complete moves not. In this way are formed (5) Second- 
ary, or Tri-dimensional Matter, i.e., Body (6), the Ex- 
tended Universe; (7) Nature, sublimary and transient; 
(8) the Four Elements; (9) Things or Products. In 
these, the Soul having at last reached the lowest depth of 
multiplicity, begins a process of unification, whereby it 
perfects itself and completes matter. This is called the 
Eeturn (Ma'ad, sometimes rendered Resurrection). It 
is exactly what we should call Evolution, whose existence 
is thus accounted for. Under the unifying influence of 
the Soul, Matter becomes, first, minerals, then plants, 
then animals, and, lastly, man, who gradually ascends 
above transience, through the various moving spheres, 
until he reaches the quiet heaven of the Universal Soul, 
which can now pour upon him the divine overflow. 
Through this he turns to pure, complete, perfect Reason; 
through it he becomes perfect, and enters into direct 
union with God. Thus the whole process of the universe 
is a going forth from the absolute unity of God to the 
absolute multiplicity of matter, and back again from this 
to the unity of God. The world is from God and to God.* 

(Ill) The Rational World-Soul 

No. 31 (1) discusses the Principles of Eeason, accord- 
ing to Pythagoras, and shows how God, in creating, ar- 
ranged the world on a basis of number drawn from 

*See Theology of Aristotle, Book X. ; Liber de Causis, § 21 (Edit. Bar- 
denhewer). In a system like this there is no distinction between Creation 
and Fall. The Creation is the Fall, just as the Return is Redemption. 
God creates, the Soul redeems. The Mystic Trinity is God, Reason, Soul. 

10 



146 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

unity. — No. 32 (2) states the Principles of Keason, ac- 
cording to the " Brothers of Sincerity," and gives the 
grounds for the origin of the world, and the mediate 
causes for all existence. — No. 33 (3) discusses the saying 
of the philosophers, that the Universe is a Great, Good 
Man, endowed with intellect and soul, a living world, 
ohedient to its master. — No. 34 (4) deals with Reason 
and its Object, Being, and the true nature of the sub- 
stance of the Soul. — No. 35 (5) treats of the Revolutions 
of the Stars and Spheres, and shows that the world came 
into being, and will again go out of being. — No. 36 (6) 
treats of the Love of the Soul, its nature and origin, and 
shows that the object of this love is God, for whom all 
creatures long. — No. 37 (7) deals with the Return or 
Resurrection. — No. 38 (8) deals with the Various Kinds 
of Motion, and shows how the world proceeded from the 
Creator. — No. 39 (9) treats of Causes and Effects, and 
shows that they form a continuous circle. Here we are 
shown the origin, rules, and arrangement of the sciences, 
and taught that the universe is a self-determined whole. 
— No. 40 (10) treats of Definitions and Determinations, 
and tries to show the ideal essence of things, simple and 
compound. 

(IV) The Divine Law, or Revelation 

No. 41 (1) treats of Opinions, Doctrines, Dogmas, Re- 
ligions, Prophecy. It shows that all philosophies and all 
religions seek the salvation of the soul, and try to point 
out the way whereby it ascends from the hell of the lower 
world to the paradise of the spheres — the path of mystic 
vision. — No. 42 (2) treats of the Way to God, and shows 
that it leads through the civic and cathartic virtues up 



MUSLIM EDUCATION 147 

to the theoretic, by which death, resurrection, and eternal 
reward or punishment are contemplated. — No. 43 (3) ex- 
hibits the Faith and Teachings of the " Brothers of Sin- 
cerity." This faith includes a belief in individual im- 
mortality. — No. 44 (4) describes the Life of the Brothers, 
which, if somewhat monastic, was full of sweet reason 
and love.* — No. 45 (5) seeks to show the Philosophic 
Content of Islam, and to explain the meaning of Inspira- 
tion and Obsession. — No. 46 (6) discusses the Nature of 
the Eevealed Law, the Conditions of Prophecy, the Qual- 
ifications of Prophets, and the Teachings of the Servants 
of God. Its purpose is to show how the sacred writings 
have to be interpreted in order to be brought into har- 
mony with philosophy. Here allegory plays a large part. 
— No. 47 (7) treats of the Call to God, to Sincerity and 
Love, and shows that the Kingdom of truth and good- 
ness must begin with a small knot of men who write and 
agree to lead a certain life, and propagate a certain doc- 

* They had formed themselves into groups or lodges, for the pursuit of 
study, and a common life of purity, simplicity, and helpfulness. Their 
social bond was friendship or love, and the guide of their life science, 
which they welcomed in all its forms. They professed to draw their 
knowledge from four kinds of books, (1) Books on the Matter and 
Form of Knowledge (Aristotle's Logic, etc.) ; (2) Books of Revelation 
(Torah, Gospel, Psalms, Qoran, etc.) ; (S) Books on Physics and Human 
Productions ; (4) Books on Mystic Philosophy (Neo-Platonic chiefly). 
They recognized four grades of spiritual attainment, and divided them- 
selves into four classes corresponding to these: (1) The Technics, whose 
virtues were purity of soul-substance, quick comprehension and rapid 
presentation, and whose course extended from their fifteenth to their 
thirtieth year ; (2) the Directors, whose virtues were directive power, 
generosity, gentleness, sympathy and compassion, and whose course 
extended from thirty to forty ; (3) the Kings or Rulers, whose virtue 
was power to command and forbid, to overcome and determine, with a 
view to suppressing, with gentleness, insubordination, and whose course 
extended from forty to fifty; (4) the Angels, whose virtue was divine 
insight or inspiration, by which they rose to a vision of the Eternal, and 
of the future life, and the way thither, who had complete authority over 
the Brothers, whose course lasted till their death, when they ascended to 
God as ministering angels. Cf. last lines of Qolden Words. 



148 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

trine. — No. 48 (8) treats of the Actions of Spiritual Be- 
ings, and shows that there exist incorporeal, active es- 
sences in the world. — No. 49 (9) deals with the different 
Forms of Government, the Grades of Eiders, and the 
Character of the Ruled. God is the supreme ruler, and 
the best earthly ruler is he that stands nearest to Him. — 
No. 50 (10) treats of the Universe as an Ordered Hie- 
rarchy of Beings, proceeding from God, and returning to 
God.*— No. 51 (11) treats of Witchcraft, Philtres, Evil 
Eye, Omens, Amulets, Talismans, Genii, Satans, Angels, 
and their relations and acts. 

Such is the Encyclopaedia, or educational curriculum 
of the " Brothers of Sincerity." f It must, as a whole, be 
abandoned, as incompatible with demonstrated truth; 
much of it must be rejected, as pure superstition. Yet it 
claims our interest for several reasons: (1) It sums up the 
best thought of a long, momentous period in the history 
of culture, a period in which man " rose from nature to 
spirit," and, indeed, is the very form of that process. 
(2) It has its roots in all the past of humanity, and its 
branches in all its future: it is the complete scheme of 
mediaeval science. (3) It is all-comprehensive, including 
nature and spirit, and showing that the former has its 
origin in the latter. (4) It does its best to harmonize 
reason with revelation. J (5) It shows man his place in 
the universe, his origin, his destiny, and, therefore, his 
duty. (6) It thus furnishes a complete education, en- 

* See Qoran, XXL, 104. 

t It presupposed primary instruction in reading, writing, grammar, 
versification, and arithmetic. 

% It shows the dangers with which such attempts are necessarily beset, 
because they assume a dualism that does not exist. A superrational 
revelation made to reason ia a contradiction in terms. 



MUSLIM EDUCATION 149 

abling its recipient to lead a rational, aimful, and, there- 
fore, free life. 

The system, including, as it does (1) Propedeutics, (2) 
Physics, (3) Metaphysics, (4) Theology, is complete in 
every part. Though, like all systems prior to the rise 
of experimental science, it assumes all the knowable to 
be known, and so presents itself as final, an absolute 
norm for life and thought, it has many merits. On the 
intellectual side, it taught men to look upon themselves 
as having their origin and end in the one supreme prin- 
ciple of the universe, and as being essential parts of the 
sum of existence. On the emotional side, it made them 
feel that the entire universe was only their larger self, 
and that, since the same soul pulsated in all things, in 
wronging others, they were wronging themselves. Thus, 
universal love and tenderness became the dominant prin- 
ciples of their lives. On the volitional side, it made 
them seek to elevate the living world nearer and nearer 
to God, and to instruct, purify, and discipline the souls of 
their fellows.* 

We may well ask why a system, with such merits, did 
not succeed. The answer is that it was many generations 
ahead of its time: the world was not ready for such a 
gospel. To live by insight and reason implies a degree 
of culture rare at any time, and certainly not common in 
Iraq in the year 1000. Among the men who flattered 
themselves that they could so live was a contemporary 
of the " Brothers," Ibn Sina, one of the greatest of all 
thinkers; and his life offered an example that did not 
invite imitation. His outspoken rationalism roused the 

* Like all pantheistic systems, it tended to produce quietism and a 
dreamy, unvolitional existence. 



150 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

fanaticism of the Arabs, and found expression in the 
writings of the sceptical mystic,* Al Ghazzali (1059- 
1111), whose name closes the list of Eastern Muslim 
thinkers. After him, a harsh, rigid orthodoxy, set off 
against a gross, material, disingenuous mysticism, both 
equally hostile to education, triumphed, as it still tri- 
umphs,! in the East. In the course of the eleventh cen- 
tury all that remained of Arabic philosophic writings 
found its way thence to Spain, giving rise to a philosophic 
movement of much promise, that lasted for a century. 
Among these writings was the Encyclopaedia of the 
"Brothers of Sincerity," introduced about 1020-1030. 
Here it influenced, not only the Arab thinkers of the 
West, but also, and in a higher degree, the Jewish, and, 
ultimately, the Christian thinkers. The famous work of 
Ibn Tufail (died 1185), Hayy ibn Yokdhan, still a favor- 
ite among the Quakers, borrows much from it, and so does 
the great work of the Jew Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron), 
Meqor Hayyim, which largely influenced the Christian 
Schoolmen. J We shall meet this influence further on 

* Al Ghazzali and his mysticism were both of Persian, or, in the last 
resort, Syrian origin. 

t See Gobineau, Les Religions et Philosophies dans VAsie Centrale. 
Cap. V. 

X See Joel, Etivas uber den Eiiijluss der jiidischen Philosophic aufdie 
christliche ijcholastik, in lieitrage zur Oeschichte der Philosophic, Vol. 1. 



DIVISION II. 

MEDIAEVAL EDUCATION 

CHAPTER I. 

PERIOD OF CHARLES THE GREAT 

The end of the ancient world was also the starting-point of medi- 
aeval history. The former closed its career with the transcendental 
doctrines of the Christian faith ; the latter began its course with 
these. These doctrines were the spring of mediaeval culture. The 
whole content of human existence was subordinated to aims lying 
beyond the present world. . . . The upbuilding of the Chris- 
tian theocratic state, with which the epoch of the ancient peoples 
had closed, became the problem of the mediaeval world. — Van 
Eicken, Mittelalt. Weltansch., p. 151. 

The conceptions of the Divine and the Good, drawn from sensible 
nature, were already the first steps to a breach with nature. The 
principle of the natural would have led the Germanic myth, as it 
had once done the Greek, beyond itself. The life of nature was 
already poetized into a tragedy, and the change in things traced back 
to moral guilt. Clearly, the continuation of the myth would have 
resulted among the Germans, also, in a principal denial of nature. 
But this evolution was interrupted by the introduction of Christian- 
ity. The thought of an opposition between nature and spirit re- 
mained undeveloped in the depths of the myth. — Ibid., p. 160. 

Christianity is asceticism and theocracy. — Harnack, Dogmen- 
gesch., Vol. III., p. 298. 

Law is mighty, mightier is need. — Goethe, Faust, Pt. II. 
151 



152 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

When education revived in Europe, after the darkness 
of the eighth century, it was no longer among the Latin 
peoples, but among their conquerors, the Germans. 
With these an altogether new phase of education begins. 
If, thus far, education had aimed at subordinating the 
individual to the social whole, or its ruler, its task now 
is to free the individual, to give him validity in the face 
of all institutions. Of this task it only slowly became 
conscious; indeed, it is not completely conscious of 
it now. 

When the Germanic tribes overcame and broke down 
the civic empire of Eome, they themselves were over- 
come by the Semitized, supernatural empire which had 
long been undermining and replacing it, that is, by Chris- 
tianity, which had fallen heir to its imperial and legal 
forms.* And, indeed, they could hardly have desired 
anything better. The passionate, untamable individual- 
ity of the Germans, which even the necessity of com- 
bination, and subordination to chiefs, in their long strug- 
gle with the Romans had but slightly modified, could 
have found no better corrective than the awesome super- 
naturalism of Roman Christianity. This appealed, in a 
powerful way, to their profoundly superstitious natures, 
and, though it never succeeded in completely conquer- 
ing their individualism and imparting that political 
consistency which is essential to the founding of a great 
empire, it enabled them to play an important part in 
the world. The history of the Middle Age, and, to a 
large extent, even that of modern times, is the record 
of a struggle between Roman coercive organization and 
German individualism, and the end is not yet. But, 

* See Von Eicken, Mittelalterliche Weltanschauung, pp. 159 seq. 



PERIOD OF CHARLES THE GREAT 153 

with all her Eoman tendency to coercion, the Church, 
almost in spite of herself, contributed powerfully to 
the development of the higher, rational individualism, 
by dividing men's allegiance. In the ancient world, the 
individual belonged, soul and body, to the State; in the 
mediaeval world, he belonged, with his body to the State,* 
with his soul to the Church, and it was through the lat- 
ter that he finally conquered for himself a sphere inde- 
pendent of the former. The most unworldly element 
in Christianity, viz., Mysticism, was the great breeder 
of individual freedom, f 

The revival of study in mediaeval Europe was due to 
the influence of Irish or Scottish^ monks. Ireland was 
Christianized by the British St. Patrick, about a.d. 432, 
and a century later became the seat of stern piety and 
learning. The old Graeco-Roman curriculum of studies 
seems to have continued there. Thus, when the with- 
drawal of the Eomans from Britain left that country, 
with its churches and schools, to the mercy of the Picts 
and confusion, learning flourished in a land where the 
Roman eagles never flew. Hence, under the influence 
of the Irish St. Columba (Colum, Colme), and his great 
monastery in Iona (Colme-Kill), it spread among the 
Picts, and had made considerable progress by the year 
600, when Roman Christianity began to spread among 
the Anglo-Saxons. Though there were considerable 
differences between Irish and Roman Christianity, and 

*See the closing sections of Dante's De Monarchia, and cf. Villari, 
Saggi di Storia di Critica c di Politico,, pp. 37-93. 

t See Preger, Die deutsche Mystik, passim, and Tocco, UEresia net 
Medio Evo, pp. 261-559 (Book II). 

X Till about the tenth century Scotia means Ireland, and Scot means 
Irish. In the ninth century, however, John the Scot found it necessary 
to add Eriugena to his name. 



154 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the Iro-Pictish church was independent of Rome, there 
was no hostility between the two. The learned Irish 
monks, who carried their discipline and their learning 
all over Europe, even to Ireland, before its discovery by 
the Norsemen in 864,* were willing to impart these to 
their catholic brethren. Thus, by the middle of the 
seventh century, cloister schools had begun to rise in 
the north of England — at Yarrow, Wearmouth, York, 
etc. At the same time, the Greek, Theodore of Tarsus, 
first archbishop of Canterbury, was laboring to give 
learning a seat in the south. In a very little time Anglo- 
Saxon missionaries and teachers were following in the 
wake of their Irish brethren, and helping to revive edu- 
cation on the continent. They seem to have devoted 
special attention to the Franks, who had become catho- 
lics under Chlodowech, in 496, and who were now rising 
in political importance in consequence, f Among these 
pioneers were Egbert, Wilfrid, and Willebrod (died 
739). More famous than these was Wynfrith, who 
assumed the Latinized name Bonifatius, and whom 
Pope Gregory II appointed as papal vicar in southern 
Germany. Under this manj and his Anglo-Saxon com- 

* See the Islendinga-bok, near the beginning. 

■f The conversion of Chlodowech and his Franks to Catholicism was a 
great turning-point in history. The Christianity of the Germanic tribes 
had for the most part been Arianism, while that of the Romanized 
populations, among whom they settled as conquerors, was Catholicism. 
ThiB naturally produced antagonism between the two nationalities, and 
greatly weakened the Germans. To put an end to this, Chlodowech, by 
a wonderful stroke of policy, became a Catholic, and at once had all the 
influence of the Catholic bishops and church on his side. His Franks 
were widely welcomed, as deliverers from heresy, and his dominions 
rapidly extended. See VonEicken, Mittrlalt. Weltanschauung, pp. IG'J- 
212. — It may be noted here that the oldest known specimen of any Ger- 
manic tongue is the Gospels of Ulfilas, Arian Bishop of the Moeso- 
Goths, on the lower Danube, about a.d. 360. 

X He was finally driven from his position by the civil power, and 
died a martyr's death among the Friesians in 755. 



PERIOD OF CHARLES THE GREAT 155 

patriots, male and female, the organization and dis- 
cipline of the Roman church were introduced every- 
where in the Frankish dominions, which now occupied 
nearly all that had been covered by the Roman empire, 
except what was occupied by Islam and Constantinople. 
This was done, at first, without the co-operation of the 
civil power; but this also was soon obtained, and a 
close bond established between the civil and ecclesias- 
tical authorities, a bond which in the sequel had much 
significance. When, in 747, Pippin became master of 
the whole Frankish domain, which had been broken 
up into separate kingdoms since the death of Chlodo- 
wech, he did his best to further catholic belief and dis- 
cipline among his people, and to strengthen the bond 
between his power and the Roman See by an exchange 
of benefits. 

This was the condition of things when Charles, sur- 
named the Great, became sole ruler of the Frankish 
dominions (771 a.d.). He was truly a great man, in that 
he clearly saw the needs of his time and strove to meet 
them. These needs were, above all, unity of sentiment 
among the various subject peoples, and education. Fully 
recognizing that the civil power was unequal to this 
great task, and seeing no help anywhere save in the 
Church, he did his best to work through it, meaning 
to keep it under his control. His efforts were so suc- 
cessful that on Christmas day, a.d. 800, he was crowned 
Roman Emperor by the Pope, in St. Peter's, and the 
chief seat of civil authority in the Western World trans- 
ferred from the Grseco-Latin to the Germanic peoples, 
an event of infinite significance. At the same time, the 
Frankish church came to stand for Western Christianity, 



156 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

effecting changes even in the creed. In fact, Charles 
was complete master, in both State and Church.* 

Long before his coronation, Charles had taken meas- 
ures to promote education among his subjects by draw- 
ing to his court learned men from different countries. 
Most prominent among these was the Anglo-Saxon 
Alcuin,f who went from the school of York to Aachen, 
in 782, to become head of the " Palace School." As 
such, he is usually regarded as the father of mediaeval 
education. This, as we shall see, is not quite correct; 
for that education had more than one father. Besides, 
the movement initiated by Charles belonged, in char- 
acter, rather to the ancient than to the mediaeval world, 
whose distinguishing Mysticism had not yet come into 
prominence. Alcuin's aim was to restore the education 
of the days of St. Augustine, including even its pagan 
elements. Although he probably knew nothing of 
Martianus Capella, he championed the " Seven Liberal 
Arts," and deprecated every departure from them. He 
was, indeed, in all ways, authority-bound and conserva- 
tive, manifesting no originality anywhere; as was well, 
considering the conditions under which he worked. 
Deeply influenced by St. Augustine, he aimed, in all 
that he did, to prepare men for the life to come. He 
deprecated all frivolity, and even play, in his pupils. Of 
science he had not an inkling: his definitions are often 
childish and worse. His style is florid, unnatural, and 
allegorical, sometimes a mere cento of scripture-pas- 
sages, shamelessly wrested from their natural meaning. 

*See Harnack, Bogmengesch. , Vol. III., pp. 244-274. 

+ Alcnin, born near York about 735 ; entered the cathedral school as a 
mere child ; became its master in the prime of life, and conducted it 
with much success ; was transferred to Aachen in 782 ; became Bishop 
of Tours, 7%; died there, 804. See West's Alcuin and the Rise of 
the Christian Schools. 



PERIOD OF CHARLES THE GREAT 157 

And yet Alcuin was a great and valuable man in his 
day. Under his influence, and that of Charles, educa- 
tion took a fresh start in the West. In consisted of 
three grades — (1) primary education given by the parish 
priests; (2) secondary education, imparted in connec- 
tion with the cathedrals and in the monasteries; and (3) 
higher education, confined to the Palace School, the 
parent, in some sense, of the later universities. In all, 
the standard of instruction, from our point of view, 
was incredibly low; but it is doubtful whether more 
could have been accomplished in those days. One great 
drawback was the scarcity of books, and even of ma- 
terial on which to write; another was the repressive 
influence of the Roman church, which was more and 
more aiming at universal sway, and, therefore, naturally 
averse to anything that might cause dissension.* 

Nearly all the prominent teachers of the next genera- 
tion were pupils or friends of Alcuin. Most famous 
among these was Hraban Maur,f the " first instructor 
of Germany," and a much greater man than his master. 
He composed several works on education — On the In- 
struction of the Clergy; On Reckoning ; An Excerpt on 
the Grammatical Art of Priscian; On the Universe. 
The first of these treats of the various branches of study, 
the Seven Liberal Arts, etc., and shows a just apprecia- 
tion of the value of pagan learning. The last is a kind 
of universal encyclopaedia, somewhat on the plan of 

* In West's Alcuin is a list of Alcuin's educational and other works, 
pp. 183-191 ; and also a list of the principal works to which he had 
access, pp. 34 seq. 

t Born at Mainz, 776 ; sent early to the abbey of Pulda, founded in 
744 by Bonifatius ; went with others to Tours in 802 to study under 
Alcuin ; returned in 803 to Fulda, and taught with great success till 
822, when he became abbot ; retired into privacy, 842 ; made archbishop 
of Mainz, 847 ; died near Mainz, 856. 



158 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Isidore's Eiymologice, and treats of everything, from 
creation to cooking. The path pursued by Hraban 
might have led to a revival of ancient learning in the 
ninth century, had not unforeseen influences come into 
play. As it was, the work done by Alcuin, Hraban, 
and their many followers was not done in vain. In the 
troublous century that followed the death of Charles 
the Great, when his empire was divided and disordered, 
though education suffered, it never died out, but lived 
on in the hands of such men as Servatus Lupus (805- 
862), Haymo (died 853), Walafried Strabo (807- ? ), 
Luitpert (died 853), Paschasius Ratpert (died 865), 
Werembert (died 884), Eric of Auxerre (834-881?), 
Hucbald (died circ. 930), and Odo of Cluny (880-942), 
till the middle of the tenth century, when a new spirit 
took possession of Western Europe. 



CHAPTER II. 

SCHOLASTICISM AND MYSTICISM 

The mystical teaching of the Middle Age has its origin chiefly in 
the writings falsely attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, writings 
which probably belong to about the end of the fourth century. The 
speculation of the Pseudo-Dionysius is an attempt to regard 
Christianity from the point of view of Neo-Platonism, and with the 
help of this to show it to be the true philosophy. — Preger, Deut- 
sche Mystik, Vol. I., p. 148. 

A mystic who is not a Catholic is a dilettante. — Harnack, Dog- 
mengesch., Vol. III., p. 377. 

Mysticism is Catholic piety in general, in so far as this is not 
mere obedience to the Cburch, that is, fides implicita. — Ibid, p 
375. 

If any one shall say that the married state is to be preferred to 
the state of virginity or celibacy, and that it is not better and more 
blessed to remain in virginity or celibacy than to be joined in 
matrimony, let him be accursed (anathema). Canon of the Coun- 
cil of Trent. — Denzinger, Enchiridion, § 856. 

The epoch of Charles the Great is a sort of passage- 
way, connecting the ancient with the medieval world. 
It is half-worldly and pagan, while medievalism is un- 
worldly and Christian. The belief, widely current in 
the tenth century, that the world was coming to an end, 
was not altogether mistaken, though its form was. At 
that time, an old world passed away, and a new one was 

159 



160 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

born, with new ideals and a new practice, deeply affect- 
ing education. 

The influences which brought about this change were, 
mainly, three — (1) the confusion and distress due to the 
dismemberment of Charles' empire, and the inroads of 
the fierce Norsemen, (2) the introduction of Oriental 
Mysticism, (3) the rise and spread of Islam. All these 
tended to make the Church and her supernatural, super- 
mundane ideals the centre of life, and to withdraw men 
from the ways of the world. And this is medievalism. 
Of the first of these influences and its disorganizing 
effects it is hardly necessary to speak. They made life 
so unsafe and burdensome as to drive large numbers of 
men and women into the cloister, to occupy themselves 
with the world to come. The second influence, Oriental 
Mysticism, which gave content to that world, and pointed 
the way thither, came from the schools of Ireland, which 
had remained outside the Catholic church, and clung 
to Greek learning. About the middle of the ninth cen- 
tury, John Scot Eriugena,* the most profound thinker 
of those ages, gave to the world a Latin translation of 
the mystic works of the Pseudo-Dionysius, with an ex- 
tensive commentary, drawing on the writings of Maxi- 
mus Confessor and other Greeks. These works, though at 
first regarded with suspicion by the Church, were so 
much in accord with the tendencies of the time that they 
soon found the widest acceptance, and furnished the 
foundation for that monkish, mystic, world-fleeing view 
of life which distinguished the Middle Age. The third 
influence, Islam, which, claiming to be the latest and 

* This is the correct form of this word. John was born about a.d. 
810, educated in Ireland, placed by Charles the Bald at the head of the 
Palace School, died in France about 877. His great original work was De 
Divisione Natune, whose importance long remained unrecognized. 



SCHOLASTICISM AND MYSTICISM 161 

highest divine revelation, had come into conflict with 
Latin Christianity early in the eighth century, had the 
effect of waking Christendom from its supernatural slum- 
bers, and compelling it to state its position definitely, 
as opposed to the new faith.* Whereas the thinkers of 
the patristic period had spent their efforts in defining 
particular dogmas, rarely, except in the cases of Origen 
and Augustine, attempting to present a systematic body 
of doctrine, thinkers were now called upon to define 
clearly all the Christianity meant, in order to create a 
unitary consciousness, clearly aware of the distinction 
between itself and that of Islam. It was this call that 
gave rise to Scholasticism, which, in the eleventh cen- 
tury came to reduce to rational form the prevailing Mys- 
ticism, to draw out static contemplation into dynamic 
reasoning, f 

While Mysticism, as mere contemplation, was draw- 
ing men away from the life of the world, education, 
naturally enough, languished. The old GraBco-Koman 
learning, which had been partially revived in the time 
of Charles the Great and the century that followed, 
gradually disappeared again, giving place to a cloistral 
discipline, whose aim was to withdraw men's thoughts 
from civic life, and from nature with its manifold phe- 
nomena, and to fix them upon the supernatural and the 

* Muhammad had placed his creed in direct opposition to that of Chris- 
tianity, by pointedly denying, in one brief surah (cxii) of the Qoran, 
the two fundamental dogmas of the latter, the Trinity and the Incarna- 
tion : " Say, He is One God, God Eternal. He begets not, nor is begot- 
ten, and there is no one equal to him." 

t It is a great mistake to oppose Scholasticism to Mysticism. The 
former is merely the explication of what is implicit in the latter. 
Thomas Aquinas, the prince of scholastics, is quite as much of a Mystic 
as Bernard, the Prince of Mystics. See Harnack, Dogmengesch. , Vol. 
III., pp. 314 seq. 

11 



162 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

changeless One of Nee-Platonic speculation. What were 
grammar, rhetoric, logic, and the rest, to men who were 
straining every faculty in order to attain the vision of 
God? They could, at best, be but hindrances, and so, 
indeed, they were regarded. From about the middle of 
the tenth century to the end of the eleventh, when Mys- 
ticism, as yet hardly touched by reflection, was celebrat- 
ing its chief triumphs, civic life, and with it, education, 
always connected with that life, sank to a very low ebb,* 
Education did not, indeed, altogether die out; but it 
hardly went beyond teaching novices to read the church- 
service and the favorite books of edification, f About 
the year 1100, a change, due to two causes, becomes 
visible. The attacks of the Norsemen had ceased, and 
Europe was once more settling down to a tolerable civic 
life. At the same time, the growing power and culture 
of Islam, which, as early as 732, had reached Tours and 
Poictiers and, later on, had taxed the energies of Charles 

* The Mystic movement had its chief centre in the Burgundian abbey 
of Clugny, which furnished the Church with many of its most ardent 
champions, including Gregory VII., the most papal of all the popes. See 
Miiller, Kirchengesch., Vol. I., pp. 384 seq. 

t The condition of education about the year 1000 comes out with much 
clearness in the life of the Auvergnat monk, Gerbert, who died as Pope 
Sylvester II., in 1003. This indefatigable student and reformer was 
born in Auvergne about 950, entered the abbey of Aurillac as a child, 
studied at the abbey of Vich, in Spain, 967-970. met Pope John XIII. 
and the Emperor Otto I. in Italy in 971 (?) ; studied philosophy at Reims 
in 972 ; became abbot of Bobbio in 983 ; returned to Reims, 984 ; helped 
to elect Hugh Capet King of France, 987; bishop of Reims, 991 ; retired 
to Italy, 996; bishop of Ravenna, 998; pope 999-1003. In the last 
capacity he endeavored, in concert with Otto III., to revive the Roman 
Empire, a fact which shows that he had not succumbed to the mystical 
tendency. His efforts to obtain books, and his wanderings in search of 
the elements of learning, show how low learning had fallen in hiR time. 
His acquisitions, which were modest enough, were yet so unusual for his 
time that he earned himself the reputation of being a wizard, and went 
down to posterity as such. See Picavet, Gerbert, un Pape Philosophe, 
(Tapres V Histoire et cTapris la Legende (Paris 1897). Along with (Her- 
bert should be mentioned Notker Labeo, a monk of St. Gail, who died 
in 1022. For an interesting picture of him, and of cloistral school life in 
the tenth century, see Scheffel's novel, Ekkehard. 



SCHOLASTICISM AND MYSTICISM 163 

the Great, placed the Church, which now aspired to rule 
the world by denying it, in an attitude of self-defence, 
demanding education. Her dogmatic system had to be 
justified, and this could be done only with the arms of 
reason. Thus, about the date named, the seeds sown 
long before by Alcuin and Gerbert began to bear fruit. 
Alongside such Platonizing mystics as Anselm (1033- 
1109) and Bernard (1091-1153), arose men of Aristo- 
telian tendencies, e. g., Eoscellinus (1050-1120?) and 
Abelard (1079-1142), who did their best to revive edu- 
cation and thought. These two men mark so important 
an epoch in education that we must devote some atten- 
tion to them. 

The great question which agitated Christian Europe, 
about a.d. 1100, related to the dogma of the divine 
Trinity, which, as we have seen, Muhammad had denied. 
This involved the whole problem of the nature of knowl- 
edge, or, as it was then called, the problem of Universals 
— of Realism and Nominalism. It was this that gave 
rise to Scholasticism, or medieval science. The question 
had been stated long before by Porphyry in his Intro- 
duction (Eto-aywy^), but set aside as too difficult for dis- 
cussion: " With regard to genera and species, whether 
they have actual subsistence, or consist merely in pure 
thoughts, and whether, if they do subsist, they are cor- 
poreal or incorporeal; transcendent, or immanent in, and 
related to, sensible things, I shall not endeavor to de- 
cide, arid this for the reason that the question is an 
extremely profound one, requiring another and deeper 
investigation." * "What Porphyry shrank from, was 
forced upon the men of the twelfth century by the ne- 

* hagoge, near begin. ; cf. Haureau, De la Philo.i. Scolastique, VoL 
I., p. 35; Ueberweg, Grundriss etc., Pt. II., p. 141 (7th Edit.). 



164 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

cessities of Christian dogma. Is God a subsistent reality, 
or a mere generalization in thought from the three divine 
persons? The Platonists and Mystics (Anselm, Bernard), 
took one view, the Aristotelians (Eoscellinus, Abelard), 
the other. With the question itself we have no con- 
cern here, further than to say that it revived the science 
of dialectic and, in course of time, all the sciences or 
disciplines of the ancient world, and made education 
necessary. 

Though Eoscellinus is justly regarded as the parent 
of anti-mystic Nominalism, this revival is due to his 
pupil, Abelard,* more than to any other one person. 
The romantic history of this man and his wife, Heloise, 
are too well-known to require treatment here. Abelard 
was the first modern man; Heloise, the first modern 
woman. With all their faults, they were profoundly 
human. We must not, however, conclude from this, as 
is sometimes done, that he meant to be unorthodox, or 
sought to rebel against the doctrines of the Church. Far 
from it! He merely tried to fortify these doctrines, by 
placing them upon a rational foundation. In so far, he 
may, indeed, be called the parent of modern rationalism 
and science. He had great respect for certain pagan 
thinkers, especially for Plato and Aristotle, of whose 
works, however, he knew but little. f He called himself 
a Peripatetic, and believing, like all mediaeval men, that 

* See Remusat, Abelard, 2 vols., Paris, 1845 ; Deutsch, Peter Abalard, 
ein kritischer Theologe des zwblften Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 188:! ; and 
above all his own Historia Calamitatum, forming the first of the Letters 
of Abelard and Heloise. His works were published by Cousin : Petri 
Abetlardi Opera, hactenus seorsim Edita, Paris 1849-59 (2 vole.), and 
Ouvragea Inedits d" Abelard, Paris, 1836. 

t Of Plato he probably knew a portion of the Thrueus ; of Aristotle 
the Categories, Interpretation, Top'ua, and Elenchi Sophistici — the 
" Old Logic " — with the Introduction of Porphyry. His pupil, Peter the 
Lombard, does not ouce cite Aristotle. 



SCHOLASTICISM AND MYSTICISM 165 

all truth had already been discovered or revealed, and 
only required elucidation, he made no pretence of orig- 
inality. But he was a powerful and impressive eluci- 
dator, and this constitutes his merit. More than any 
man of his time, he attracted and inspired pupils, com- 
pelling them to think and inquire. He confined his 
attention chiefly to Dialectic, Ethics, and Theology, on 
all of which he wrote valuable treatises, some of which 
brought him into conflict with the Church, and espe- 
cially with the Mystical movement, at that time headed 
by Bernard, who was his bitterest enemy.* 

Abelard founded no school; but he gave a mighty 
impulse to thought and education, while several of his 
pupils, Peter the Lombard (1100P-1164), author of the 
famous Sentences, so long the chief theological text- 
book, Arnold of Brescia (1102F-1155), John of Salisbury 
(1102-1180), etc., did yeoman's service in the cause of 
enlightenment. He may fairly be called the inventor of 
the " scholastic method," f which afterwards became so 
powerful a weapon in the hands of Thomas Aquinas and 
others. But perhaps his chief merit lies in the fact that 
his influence largely contributed to the founding of the 
universities, which began some half century after his 
death. To these we must now turn. 

* In his Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew and a Christian, 
though he gives the victory to the last, lie strives to be fair to all three 
disputants. 

t See Picavet, Abelard et Alexandre de Hales, Createurs de la MethoCe 
Seolastique, in Etudes de Critique et d'Histoire, Ser. II., Vol. VII., r p. 
209-230. This method consists in citing all known authorities on both 
sides of a given question, then drawing an orthodox conclusion, and then, 
by a variety of distinctions and devices, showing how each authority 
may be reconciled with this conclusion. It assumes that all truth is to 
be round in authorities, and that these, when properly interpreted, are in 
agreement. It is, of course, opposed to all free thought and to all 
original research ; but it is a wonderful sharpener of the wits, a "mental 
gymnastic. " 



CHAPTER III. \ 

THE MEDIAEVAL UNIVERSITIES 

I have now, alas ! thoroughly, with ardent care, studied philos- 
ophy, jurisprudence, medicine, and, the more's the pity, also the- 
ology ! And now I stand here, poor fool, and am as wise as I was 
before. — Gothe, Faust, Scene I. 

The ancient world may fairly be said to have pos- 
sessed universities, that is, institutions in which all the 
learning of the time was imparted. Such institutions 
existed at Alexandria (Museum and Serapeum), Athens, 
Constantinople, and later at Berut, Bordeaux, Lyons, 
Edessa, Nisibis, etc. But the growth of Christian super- 
naturalism and mysticism, and the inroads of the bar- 
barians from North and South had mostly put an end 
to these, before a.d. 800. After that date, the Eastern 
Muslims founded universities in Bagdad, Basra, Cairo,* 
and other places; but most of these came to an end early 
in the twelfth century. Then arose in Spain, at Cor- 
dova, Toledo, Sevilla, the universities of the Western 
Muslims, which lasted for about a century, being sup- 
pressed by orthodox fanaticism about a.d. 1200. Ibn 
Rushd, the last great Arab thinker, died in 1198. 

*The university of Tairo (Al Azhar) founded about a.d. 900, still 
exists, and is said to have more students than any university in the 
world. It is a mere open colonnade attached to a mosque. It confines its 
instruction to Logic (Porphyry's Introduction) and Muslim Theology, 
based on the Qoran and commentaries. There is another Muslim uni- 
versity at Fez ; but little is known of it. 

166 



THE MEDIAEVAL UNIVERSITIES 167 

The Muslim universities may be said to be the parents 
of the Christian universities. As we have seen, the suc- 
cess of Islam threatened Christendom, not only politi- 
cally, but also intellectually and religiously. The brill- 
iant civilizations of Iraq and Spain, with their schools, 
universities, art, trade, etc., contrasted strongly with the 
condition of barbarized, squalid Europe. From the time 
of Charlemagne, the claims of Islam, and the dangers 
arising from them were, more or less, understood in 
Christendom. Christian scholars went to Muslim lands 
in search of learning. The Crusades made the West 
familiar with Muslim culture. Early in the twelfth cen- 
tury, Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Clugny, and friend 
of Abelard in his last days, caused the Qoran to be trans- 
lated into Latin, and, about the same time, Christian stu- 
dents were frequenting the Muslim schools of Spain, and 
translating Arabic works into the same. Famous among 
these were Gerhard of Cremona (1124—1187), and Do- 
minicus Gundissalinus, archdeacon of Segovia (of about 
the same date), who was assisted by the converted Jew, 
John Avendehut (Ibn Dawud). In this way, soon after 
the middle of the twelfth century, the learning of the 
Arab schools was known to Christian Europe. With 
this learning went a knowledge of Muslim theology, 
which threatened to work havoc with Christian dogma, 
and compelled it to defend itself. The brilliant em- 
peror, Frederick II. (1195-12 ? ) surrounded himself 
with Muslims, among whom were the sons of Ibn Kushd, 
and was himself almost a Muslim in faith and morals, 
nay, perhaps altogether a free thinker.* 

* See Renan, AverroSs et VAvervo'isme ; Reuter, Gesch. der religiosen 
Anfklarung im Mittelalter, Vol. II. ; Steinschneider. Die hebraischen 
Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters, and Die arabischen Uebersetzungen aus 



168 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The Muslim universities had taken a broad sweep, in- 
cluding in their curriculum, not only the " liberal arts," 
but also medicine (physics), philosophy, and theology. 
When they were closed, Christian Europe not only felt 
the need of universities of its own, but was also able to 
establish such. It had not sat at the feet of the Muslims 
in vain. 

From the days of Alcuin onwards, a certain small 
amount of education had existed in Western Europe. 
Connected with the larger churches were elementary 
schools where reading was taught; and connected with 
the cathedrals and monasteries were schools of a some- 
what higher order, in which writing, vocal music, a 
little arithmetic (enough to calculate the date of Easter!) 
and the elements of theology were imparted. Later on, in 
the eleventh century, there arose in the larger centres — 
Paris, Cologne, etc. — institutions of a still higher order, 
open to all properly prepared students, without distinc- 
tion. Here were taught dialectic, theology, and perhaps 
some other branches. About 1100 these last received a 
fresh impulse, and later, with the influx of Arab learn- 
ing (1150-1250), an altogether new life and scope, which 
turned them into universities.* 

The name first given to these institutions was Studium, 
or Studium Generate, the adjective implying, not that 
they included all branches of learning in their curricu- 
lum, but that, unlike other schools, they were open 
to the " students " f of all lands. There might be a 

dem Grlechischen ; Jourdain, Recherclies Critiques stir VAge et VOrigine 
des Traductions Latines d' Aristote. 

*See Denifle, Die Universilaten des Mittelalters bis 1400 ; Compayre, 
Abelard and the Origin and Early History of Universities. 

t In Great Britain, even now, the verb study, and the noun student 
are confined to university -work. A school-boy is not a student, nor does 
he " study his lessons," as in America. 



THE MEDIAEVAL UNIVERSITIES 169 

Studium Generate for any particular branch, e.g., medi- 
cine. Nevertheless, the Studia Generalia did, in course 
of time, try to include all knowledge in their cur- 
riculum.* They were, moreover, endowed with certain 
privileges, conferred by the Pope, the Emperor, or a 
prince. The student who took his degree at any Studium 
Generate earned the right to teach anywhere (facuttas 
ubique docendi), without further examination. Private 
institutions, however high their curriculum, could con- 
fer no such privilege. The term University (universitas), 
which appears somewhat later than Studium Generate, 
means simply corporation, and has no special reference 
to seats of learning. When a Studium Generate was 
incorporated, it became a University, even though, like 
the law-university of Bologna, it instructed but in one 
branch. It was a considerable time before many uni- 
versities included all the " faculties." 

The Arabs seem to have set the example of opening 
institutions of learning for all the world. When their 
universities sank, the Christian ones arose. Frederic II. 
was particularly active in seeking to imitate all the in- 
stitutions of Muslim civilization. He founded the Uni- 
versity of Naples, and tried to make all the students 
among his subjects attend it (1224). With the excep- 
tion of Oxford, this was the first university that included 
all the four faculties — Theology, Law, Arts, (Philos- 
ophy) Medicine. But by far the larger number of the 
universities received their charters from the popes, who 
were, for the most part, enlightened men, and patrons 

* There is no documentary evidence for the use of the term Studium 
Generate, or the equivalent Studium Universale, prior to the third 
quarter of the thirteenth century. Both seem to be translations of the 
Arabic Madrasah Kulliyyah, which has the same meaning. 



170 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of learning, rarely yielding to the allurements of Oriental 
mysticism. 

That Christian universities existed in fact, before they 
received official recognition, is certain. That of Salerno, 
for medicine, dates back to the ninth century, and the 
same is perhaps true of that of Oxford, whose foundation 
has often been attributed to King Alfred. For the last 
fact there is not sufficient documentary evidence; yet it 
is not unlikely. Learning was not uncommon in Britain 
in the ninth century, and Alfred was a patron of it, hav- 
ing himself translated Boetius and Orosius. Certain it 
is that Oxford had as many students as it has now, at 
the end of the twelfth century, when the two universi- 
ties recognized as the oldest, Paris and Bologna, were 
founded. 

But, after all, there is a very important sense in which 
these two must be recognized as the oldest universities. 
They are very different from the institutions that went 
before them, and this for four reasons: (1) the impulse 
given to inquiry and discussion by men like Abelard; 
(2) the influx of Arab learning and thought, compelling 
the Church to state and defend her position; (3) the 
privileges granted to travelling students by emperors and 
princes; (4) the incorporation of the teaching bodies, 
which gave them a legal standing. The critical and 
dialectic method of Abelard and his followers forms a 
strong contrast to the dull, catechetical method of Al- 
cuin and the earlier teachers. Compared with the wealth 
of Arab learning, including Greek philosophy, medicine, 
and mathematics, the old learning was but as a drop in 
the bucket. Aristotle alone, with the commentaries of 
Averroes and others, was little short of a revelation. He 



THE MEDIAEVAL UNIVERSITIES 171 

became to the Christians, as he had long been to the 
Muslims, " the philosopher " whose authority it was a 
bold thing to dispute.* Students, when travelling, or 
when residing in seats of learning, were under the pro- 
tection of emperors and kings, and severe penalties were 
inflicted upon those who molested them. The charters 
granted to teaching bodies insured them a permanent 
existence, enabling them to outstrip and supplant bodies 
not so privileged. It was owing to this that the Studia 
of Bologna and Paris first rose to the rank of universi- 
ties. The former received its privileges from Frederic 
I. (Barbarossa) about 1155; the latter, from Louis VII., 
some years later. The Universitas originally consisted 
of all the instructors in a given Studium. Later, it in- 
cluded the students as well as the teachers. It was only 
after it was constituted that the teachers began to group 
themselves into " faculties," each of which managed its 
own affairs, and of which Paris possessed four as early as 
the beginning of the thirteenth century, f 

It is not possible here to follow the growth of the uni- 
versities after 1200. Between that date and 1400 their 
number had risen to nearly forty, scattered over the dif- 
ferent countries of the Catholic world. Italy and France 
had more than all the rest of Europe put together. Scan- 
dinavia, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Scotland had 
none; but as the universities were open to all the world, 
this did not mean much. Paris and Bologna long re- 
tained their prestige and popularity, followed close by 
Oxford. The later universities were modelled mostly on 

* See Talamo, L 1 Aristotelismo nella Storia delta Filosofla. 

t The philosophic, or arts faculty, acquired special prominence, so much 
so that its head became " rector " of the entire university. In Aberdeen 
at the present day, the arts students choose the "Lord Reotor." 



172 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the first two. The number of students reported as hav- 
ing attended some of the universities in those early days 
almost passes belief; e.g., Oxford is said to have had 
30,000 about the year 1300, and half that number even 
as early as 12G4. The numbers attending the univer- 
sity of Paris were still greater. These numbers become 
less surprising when we remember with what poor ac- 
commodations — a bare room and an armful of straw * — 
the students of those days were content, and what num- 
bers of them even a single teacher like Abelard could, 
long before, draw into lonely retreats, f That in the 
twelfth and following centuries there was no lack of 
enthusiasm for " study," notwithstanding the troubled 
condition of the times, is very clear. The instruction 
given at the universities, moreover, reacted upon the 
lower schools, raising their standard and supplying them 
with competent teachers. Thus, in the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, education rose in many European 
states to a height which it had not attained since the 
days of Seneca and Quintilian. This showed itself in 
many ways, but above all, in a sudden outburst of philoso- 
phy, art, and literature. To these centuries belong Al- 
bertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas and 
Bonaventura, Cimabue, Giotto and the cathedral-build- 
ers, Dante and Petrarch, Chaucer and Gower, the Minne- 
sanger of Germany, and the trouveres and troubadours 
of France. 

It was the great age of Scholasticism; J and this word 
means much. Scholasticism is mediaeval science, and 

*See Dante Farad. X. 137 with Scavtazzini's note. 
tSee Itemusat, Abelard, Vol. I, pp. 45, 108. 

% It is usual to distinguish three periods in Scholasticism (1) Rise 
950-1300 ; (2) flower, 1200-1400 ; (3) decline, 1400-1600. 



THE MEDIAEVAL UNIVERSITIES 173 

this science, instead of turning its attention directly to 
nature and culture, turned it to ancient authorities, and 
strove to reach truth by the study, interpretation, and 
harmonization of them. Science, in the modern sense, 
hardly existed; philosophy was the handmaid of revealed 
theology, which pronounced the final word on all dis- 
puted questions. The knowledge of God was the end 
of all research. The culture of the Middle Age is the 
practical outcome of the principles of Scholasticism. 

It is easy to find fault with mediaeval science and 
mediaeval education; and, from our modern point of 
view, they cannot but appear very faulty. The former 
was authority-bound and blind to nature; the latter con- 
sisted mostly of memory-work and subtle disputation — 
wrangling, as it was called in England. And yet they 
were exactly what the times needed. Scholasticism was 
necessary in order (1) to correct the mystical tendencies 
which were sapping the energies of Europe and with- 
drawing the best men and women from the life of the 
world; (2) to put Europe in possession of the rational 
thought of the ancient world; (3) to counteract the al- 
luring but corrupt influences of Islam. In a word, it 
saved Europe from moral suicide, ignorance, and flesh- 
liness. And it did more. By training men's minds in 
logical method, it paved the way for modern research 
and science, thereby, to be sure, digging its own grave, 
as all things temporary in their nature must do. 

Gothe, in his Faust, has tried to embody the transi- 
tion from mediaeval to modern civilization. In the mas- 
querade scene, in the second part, the two civilizations 
are represented, respectively, by the two principal groups, 
the former moving slowly along, like a richly caparisoned 



174 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

elephant, surmounted by Victory, guided by Astuteness, 
and accompanied by Fear and Hope in chains; the lat- 
ter, thundering along as two fire-breathing dragons, sur- 
mounted by Wealth, and guided by Poetry, or Free 
Creative Imagination. The symbolism in both cases is 
apt enough, and the transition was very real. 

Thus far, all education, with the exception, perhaps, 
of that inculcated by Socrates, has been education for 
subordination. With the decay of medievalism, which 
carried this subordination to its highest point, even into 
the conscience of the individual, a great change took 
place. Henceforth education will tend, more or less con- 
sciously, to the development of freedom and individ- 
ualism. The Germanic spirit, which for ages has been 
struggling against Roman domination, with little suc- 
cess, will now make itself felt and found free states, 
gradually emancipating themselves from medievalism 
and supernaturalism. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RENAISSANCE, REFORMATION, AND COUNTER- 
REFORMATION 

The truth shall make you free. — John viii. 32. 

The superstition in which we have grown up, even when we 
recognize it, does not lose its power over us. They are not all free 
who mock at their chains. — Lessing, Nathan the Wise. 

For, indeed, a change was coming upon the world, the meaning 
and direction of which even still is hidden from us, a change from 
era to era. The paths trodden by the footsteps of ages were 
broken up ; old things were passing away, and the faith and life of 
ten centuries was dissolving like a dream. Chivalry was dying ; 
the abbey and the castle were soon together to crumble into ruins, 
and all the forms, desires, beliefs, convictions of the old world 
were passing away, never to return. A new continent had risen up 
beyond the western sea. The floor of heaven, inlaid with stars, had 
sunk back into an infinite abyss of immeasurable space ; and the 
firm earth itself, unfixed from its foundations, was seen to be but a 
small atom in the awful vastness of the universe. In the fabric of 
habit, which they had so long laboriously built for themselves, 
mankind were to remain no longer. And now it is all gone — like 
an unsubstantial pageant faded ; and between us and the old Eng- 
lish there lies a gulf of mystery which the prose of the historian 
will never adequately bridge. They cannot come to us, and our 
imagination can but feebly penetrate to them. Only among the 
aisles of the cathedral ; only as we gaze upon their silent figures 
sleeping in their tombs, some faint conceptions float before us of 
what these men were when they were alive, and perhaps in the 
sound of church-bells, that peculiar creation of mediaeval age, 
which falls upon the ear like the echo of a vanished world. — 
Froude, Henry VII., Vol. I., pp. 63 seq. 

175 



176 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Enthusiasm for the ancient threatened to replace scholasticism 
by mere philology and erudition. This meant remaining in books, 
whereas science is in things. — Seailles, Leonard de Vinci, pp. 
185 seq. 

Mediaeval Europe underwent three Renaissances, the 
first in the eighth century; the second in the twelfth; 
the third in the fourteenth and fifteenth. The first 
brought back something of old Roman education; the 
second introduced Aristotle and the learning of the 
Arabs; the third resuscitated the whole culture of the 
ancient Grasco-Roman world. The first prepared for the 
second; the second for the third. 

The all-embracing philosophy of Aristotle was espe- 
cially enlightening and effective. In the thirteenth cen- 
tury, the admiration for it was almost boundless. The 
great thinkers of the time, such as Albertus Magnus 
(1193-1280) and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) used it 
to express and systematize the dogmas of the Catholic 
faith, and from that day to this the philosophy of the 
Catholic Church has been virtually Aristotelianism. But 
it was impossible to confine his philosophy to this use. 
His works opened to the mediaeval mind a whole new 
world, by no means compatible with mediaeval ideals, 
and strongly calculated to draw men away from these, 
so that many able thinkers, including even Dante,* ran 
the risk of losing their faith and becoming pagan philoso- 
phers. The later Scholasticism (Thomism and Scotism) 
left the mind in anything but the receptive attitude fa- 
vorable to blind faith, while the higher Mysticism, claim- 
ing to place the individual soul in direct relation to 
God, tended to encourage the belief that the Church 

* See the Convivio (Banquet) throughout, and Purgatory, XXX., 
70 eeq. 



RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 177 

and her ordinances were not essential to salvation, and 
to strengthen individualism and free thought. This was 
especially true, when Mysticism, in the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, began to reflect upon itself and 
become scholastic. Then arose heresies without num- 
ber, some of them containing many elements of good, 
some of them foolish enough.* Hardly one of them 
thought of going to the root of things, and questioning 
the principle of authority. 

The human mind, thus " awakened from its dogmatic 
slumbers," began to look about it, and the results were 
three important discoveries, and one important inven- 
tion. The discoveries of the wealth of Greek literature, 
of America, and of the Copernican astronomy, all ren- 
dered triply valuable by the invention of printing, ef- 
fectively broke up the mediaeval world, both physical and 
moral,f and turned men's thoughts into entirely new 
channels — from faith to reason, and from supernature 
to nature. Henceforth Theology fights a losing battle 
with Science.^ In course of time, the new movement 
eventuated in two great historic events, the Renaissance, 
or rehabilitation of Nature, and the Reformation, or re- 
habilitation of Reason, the former in Italy, the latter 
among the Germanic peoples. The Church, while show- 
ing considerable favor for the former, and indeed, never 
breaking with it, was bitterly opposed to the latter, a 
fact which caused the great Protestant schism in the 
sixteenth century. 

* See Renter, Oesch. der religibsen Aufkldrung im Mittelalter ; and 
Tocco, VEresia nel Medio Evo. 

t To see how closely connected these were, one must carefully study 
Dante's Divine Comedy. 

\ See A. D. White, History of the Warfare of Theology with Science. 

12 



178 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The rehabilitation of Reason, as a human faculty 
capable of attaining truth, and as the tribunal before 
which everything claiming to be truth had to show its 
credentials, and the rehabilitation of Nature, as a revela- 
tion of truth to Reason, meant the rehabilitation of 
science and free philosophy, and these called for an edu- 
cation quite different from the older one, which had 
consisted mostly of memory-work and subtle disputation 
about ancient texts; for an education in the observation 
and sifting of facts and in drawing legitimate conclusions 
from them, as well as in the conduct of life in accordance 
with such conclusions. Such is, in brief, the programme 
of modern education, whose purpose is to enable the in- 
dividual to live according to truth understood and recog- 
nized by himself, and so, dispensing with authority, to 
live freely. 

The transition from mediaaval to modern education 
was not so rapid or marked as might have been expected. 
The reason for this is clear. The Reformation and the 
Renaissance, being but half conscious of what was in- 
volved in their ideals — Reason and Nature — proved, in 
practice, to be but half measures, halting between the 
old and the new, and, in defiance of their own principles, 
bowing before authority. Luther, the great champion of 
Reason, was as dogmatic within certain limits as any 
Church Father, while the champions of Nature counted 
among their number even popes and cardinals. Hence it 
was that, for long after the Reformation and Renaissance 
were in full progress, education remained what it had 
been before. It was still almost entirely in the hands of 
clerics, who conducted it according to the old methods, 
and confined it to the old subjects. Science and scien- 



RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 179 

tific methods played no part in it, but remained outside, 
strongly suspected, and often persecuted, as magic or 
black-art. Even in England, men were imprisoned for 
questioning the authority of Aristotle, as late as the s\ 
seventeenth century, while Giordano Brimo was burnt oOJ t/A/ 
in Rome in 1600 for fidelity to Nature and the scientific 
method. The story of Galilei is too well-known to need 
more than a reference. Indeed, the history of education, 
from Luther's day to our own, is very largely the his- 
tory of a struggle between supernaturalism and author- 
ity on the one hand, and nature and science on the other. 
And the struggle is by no means yet at an end. 

Nevertheless, from the fifteenth century onward, there 
are observable four growing tendencies in education — (1) 
the endeavor to make it natural and practical, instead 
of abstract and theoretical; (2) the endeavor to include 
in it care for the body, so sadly neglected and despised 
in the previous' centuries; (3) the endeavor to extend it 
to all classes of the people, and not merely to clerics, as 
formerly; (4) the endeavor to adopt gentle and attrac- 
tive methods, instead of the harsh and repulsive ones 
formerly in use. We find most of these tendencies in 
Rabelais (1483-1553), and even in Erasmus (1467-1536), 
and Montaigne (1533-1592). These were, nominally at 
least, Catholics; but we find the same tendencies, in 
perhaps even a stronger degree, among the Protestants. 
One of them, the effort to extend education to all classes, 
was a logical outcome of the fundamental principle of 
the Reformation. People who are expected to accept 
truth from authority, may be left in ignorance; but peo- 
ple who are expected to judge of truth for themselves, 
must be educated. The effort at universal education 



180 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

naturally resulted in the cultivation of the popular dia- 
lects and the translation of the sacred writings into them. 
Up to the date of the Reformation nearly all books of a 
serious sort were written in Latin; after that date they 
were composed more and more in the popular dialects.* 
The advantage to popular education resulting from this 
change can hardly be overestimated. 

Among the early reformers, the great champions 
of education were Luther (1483-15-16), Melanchthon 
(1179-1560), and Knox (1505-1572). Luther inveighed 
bitterly against the stupefying educational methods of 
his time, and demanded public schools and compulsory 
education of a liberal sort for children of either sex. He 
discarded the harsh repressive methods of the past, and 
demanded the children should be treated gently, and al- 
lowed to have a large amount of freedom. He made 
careful provision for the training of teachers, male and 
female. He showed the limitations of his time, how- 
ever, when he came to draw up a programme of educa- 
tion. It was to consist of the study of religion, succeeded 
by that of Latin, Greek* and Hebrew, with a little mathe- 
matics and logic. Though he himself translated the 
Bible into German, he left no place for the study of that 

* Latin was the official language of the Church, intelligible, for the 
most part, only to the learned. Wherever it was abandoned, in favor of 
the popular idioms, we can detect a more or less conscious departure 
from the spirit and policy of the Church. In Italy, Dante, who writes 
his noblest works in Italian, is an unsparing censor of the Church. In 
Germany, the mystics, often sadly unorthodox, write in German. In 
England, Langlande writes in English his Piers Plowman, a bitter satire 
upon the clergy. Chaucer is the contemporary of Wiclif, and so on. In 
later times, Rabelais and Montaigne write in French, Lionardo da Vinci 
in Italian, and Luther in German. Thomas More and Francis Bacon 
write partly in Latin and partly in English. The universities, from 
sheer inertia and habit, stuck to Latin long after it had been abandoned 
almost everywhere else. It was a great advantage to Islam that its sacred 
book was written in the language of the people, and placed in their hands 
from the very nrst. 



RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 181 

language. The notion of instruction in science had not 
even dawned on him; but he recommended the teach- 
ing of gymnastics and music. In one respect he was 
superior to nearly all other educational reformers. He 
clearly saw that, if ever education was to reach the chil- 
dren of the laboring classes, it must be imparted largely 
after they had "gone to work." He, accordingly, ad- 
vised that young people earning their own livelihood 
should be permitted to attend school one or two hours 
a day. In this way he may be said to have solved the 
problem of the education of the working classes, and 
we have still much to learn from him. On the whole, 
the education advocated by Luther was of the mediaeval 
sort, but transfused with the modern spirit of humanity 
and freedom. It had but little effect on subsequent edu- 
cation, even among protestants. 

Melanchthon, styled " Praeceptor Germanise," did 
much to revive higher education, and to introduce an 
improved method of teaching in the universities. In 
spite of Luther's bitter denunciations of Aristotle, Me- 
lanchthon clung to him, simply because he found that 
he could not be dispensed with; and this Luther himself 
ultimately saw. With the consent of the latter, he pub- 
lished works on Aristotelian Logic, Ethics, and Psy- 
chology, which long remained the text-books on these 
subjects. But he introduced no new principle into 
education or thought. He had no notion of scientific 
method, and placed authority above truth. He adhered 
to astrology and the mediaeval view of the construction 
of the universe, and, like Luther, rejected, as contrary 
to divine revelation (the highest authority for all truth), 
the Copernican theory. How little he believed in free 



182 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

discussion is shown by the fact that, like John Knox, 
he advocated the execution of heretics, and declared the 
burning of the Unitarian Servetus, by Calvin, to be " a 
pious and memorable example to all posterity." So un- 
faithful were these men to the fundamental thought of 
Protestantism! 

John Knox, who, by means of the authority claimed 
by the Calvinists for the Church of Christ, broke the 
bonds of feudalism and royal prestige in Scotland, was 
the chief agent in the establishment of her parish-schools, 
which have done so much to raise the level of intelli- 
gence, capacity, and moral self-respect among her people. 
Though these schools were specially intended to give in- 
struction in reading, writing, and the elements of re- 
ligious faith, the Bible being the chief text-book; yet, 
since the masters were mostly graduates of universities, 
it was possible for boys to receive in them a complete 
preparation for these higher institutions. Thus the sons 
of the poorest peasants and laborers found their way to 
the universities, and thence into the liberal professions; 
and the possibility of this imparted an energy-rousing 
stimulus of hope to every family in the land. In no coun- 
try in the world have the schools and universities been a 
greater blessing to the whole body of the people than 
in Scotland. 

The other reformers, Calvin, Zwingli, etc., did com- 
paratively little, in a direct way, to further education. 
Indeed, the Beformation was, on the whole, such a hesi- 
tating and uncertain movement, and its champions were 
so blind and disloyal to its fundamental principle, and 
so divided in opinion, that it produced no new philosophy 
and no new education. It left education subject to au- 



RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 183 

thority and in the hands of the clergy. It gave birth 
to no mighty genius who, grasping the full meaning 
and scope of the principle of private judgment, could 
give it expression in a theory and a practice in which 
authority had no part. The philosophy and education 
proper to Protestantism did not come till much later, 
and are, indeed, only beginning to be realized at the pres- 
ent day. The fact is, the rehabilitation of Reason could 
not produce these things, until it was supplemented by 
the rehabilitation of Nature. Nature (in the full sense 
of the term) is the essential content of Reason. 

By failing to introduce an education based upon its 
own principle of freedom, Protestantism left the field 
open to its opponent, Catholicism, the champion of au- 
thority, and this field was almost immediately occupied 
by one of its most loyal and typical champions, a man 
devoted, with perfect singleness of heart and indiverti- 
bility of aim, to all that it stood and stands for — Ignatius 
de Loyola,* the mystical, intensely practical founder of 
the Society of Jesus. 

Strictly speaking, the educational system of the Jesu- 
its can scarcely claim a place in a " History of Educa- 
tion as Conscious Evolution," unless we make the last 
term include evolution backwards; and this we may 

* Born in 1491 at the castle of Loyola, Spain ; enters the army as a 
youth ; is wounded ai»Pampeluna (1522) ; during convalescence reads the 
Lives of Jesus and the Saints, and resolves to become a soldier of the 
Cross ; has visions at Montserrat and Manresa ; makes a pilgrimage to the 
Holy Land (1524); devotes himself amid great difficulties, and at first with 
slight success, to study (1524-35) ; attempts a second visit to the Holy 
Land but fails on account of war (1537) ; himself and fellows accepted 
by the Pope (1539) ; receives papal charter for his society (1540) ; draws 
up a Constitution of his Order (1550 sqq.) ; dies 1556. See Hughes, 
Loyola, or the Educational System of the Jesuits, in the "Great Edu- 
cators." Presuming that this book, being written by a member of the 
society, is at least fair to it, I have drawn my statements very largely 
from it. Compare, for a very different view, Gioberti, 11 Qesuita Moderno. 



184 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

for once do. While the Protestant world was, more or 
less blindly, struggling to cast off the shackles of author- 
ity and rise to freedom, the Society of Jesus, in perfect 
good faith, and with pious intent, undertook to weld 
these shackles on more firmly than ever. It undertook 
to defend and extend Catholic faith and authority, in 
their most pronounced forms, and to educate the world 
back into complete submission to them. In doing so, 
it had to set its face against freedom of thought, and, in 
certain directions at least, to freedom of inquiry, and 
this, naturally, involved the use of methods which 
brought upon it the suspicion and hatred of the outside 
world. To defend any notion, or system of notions, on 
any other basis than because it is true, and demonstrably 
so, is to undertake a task which can be accomplished 
only by hateful and tyrannical methods, and these will 
be bitterly resented by all rationally trained, self-respect- 
ing men, no matter how pious, well-meaning, gentle, 
and insinuating those who employ them may be. The 
unpopularity of the Jesuits is sufficiently explained when 
we say that they planted themselves square in the path 
of human progress toward freedom of thought and action. 
The Society of Jesus was a great military organiza- 
tion, a Catholic " Salvation Army," with methods very 
much resembling those of its later imitator. In its plan 
of salvation was included, above all, education. Hence 
its camps, forts, and walled towns were grammar schools, 
colleges, and universities, which were manned according 
to the will of the " General " and his staff. Its officers 
were men who, having forsaken the world, and taken the 
monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, had 
received a careful military training for their duties, and 



RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 185 

were ever ready to go where they were ordered, to aid 
in reconquering the world for Catholicism and super- 
naturalism. With excellent judgment, from their point 
of view, they refused to concern themselves with primary 
instruction, and even opposed the education of the work- 
ing classes, confining themselves to the higher education 
of those — nobles and others — who were destined for the 
higher walks of life. 

In drawing up their scheme of education, they showed 
great practical wisdom, and a keen sense of the demands 
of the time. These demands they tried to satisfy, and, 
at the same time to maintain intact the principles of 
authority and supernaturalism. Hence they vied with 
the Reformers in their devotion to logic and rhetoric, 
and with the Humanists of the Renaissance in their de- 
votion to classical learning; but they did all this under 
the asgis of the strictly orthodox Dominican doctor, 
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), whose philosophy * they 
made their standard, and in whose spirit they taught. 
In this way they were able to draw to their schools young 
men belonging to families of all persuasions, and to give 
them what they desired. Being unable, however, to use 
as a stimulus the natural delight that comes from the 
untrammeled investigation and discovery of truth, and, 
hence, to interest their pupils in study for its own sake, 
they were forced to employ all sorts of inferior and un- 
natural stimuli, both to attract and to retain them — 
emulation, titles, prizes, decorations, public exhibitions, 
dramatic representations, etc. Rhetoric, which enabled 

* Under their influence, it was made the standard philosophy of the 
Catholic Church, by the papal encyclical, JEterni Patris, promulgated 
in 1879. 



186 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION" 

the young men to distinguish themselves in public, and 
to defend their acquired opinions in private, occupied 
a chief place in their system. Thus study was pursued, 
not for the sake of truth, but for the sake of distinction. 
In the matter of moral education, the aim of the Jesuits 
was to cultivate a blameless submissiveness, a cloistral 
virtue, through the enforcement of strict obedience, the 
removal of all occasions of sin, and the continual presen- 
tation of the glorious rewards and hideous punishments 
of the future life.* The cultivation of independent 
moral strength, implying, as it does, freedom of thought, 
they did not, and could not, attempt. Their ideal was 
the devoted Christian soldier, marching in strict, un- 
questioning obedience to orders held to be divine, and 
employing, with power and dexterity, all the weapons 
of the spirit for the conquest of an heretical world, that 
was tending to unbelief, rationalism, and insubordina- 
tion. The aim, they held, justified the means. 

In the early days of the Society of Jesus, when its 
religious enthusiasm was fresh, genuine, and chivalrous, 
it seems to have done excellent work in education. Both 
Baconf (1561-1626) and Descartes (1596-1650) praise 
it highly. But after the rise of true protestant educa- 
tion, due, in large measure, to these very men, it seems 
to have sunk ever lower and lower. Leibniz (1646-1716) 
tells us that in education " the Jesuits have remained 
below mediocrity," while Voltaire (1694-1778) declares 
that they taught him " nothing but Latin and non- 
sense." \ There is no reason to doubt that all these 

*See Ignatirm' Exercitia Spiritualia. 

+ See Hughes. Loyola, pp. 46, 92 ; cf. p. 105. 

% See Compayre, History of Pedagogy, p. 141 (Eng. Trans.). 



RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 1S7 

judgments are substantially correct. In the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries many distinguished men came 
forth from Jesuit institutions; but their number kept 
steadily diminishing in the eighteenth, till the dissolu- 
tion of the society in 1754, by Pope Clement XIV. 

The first Jesuit Colleges were founded in 1542, one 
at Coimbra in Portugal, another at Goa in India. After 
that they increased with extraordinary rapidity in vari- 
ous parts of the world. From almost the first, the 
schools were of three grades — (1) Grammar or Latin 
Schools, (2) Colleges or Lyceums, (3) General Studies 
or Universities. Of all these taken together there were, 
at the end of the seventeenth century, no fewer than 
769, with perhaps 200,000 students. At the time of 
the suppression they had still 728. Indeed, for two hun- 
dred years the education of Christendom may be said 
to have been in their hands. 

In the Constitution of the society, begun after over 
ten years of educational experience, Ignatius devoted 
considerable space to the matter of education and gave 
a clear outline of the plan to be pursued by his follow- 
ers. Further regulations were made by his more im- 
mediate successors; but it was not until 1599, under the 
generalship of Aquaviva, that the famous Ratio Stu- 
diorum finally appeared. This has been the norm of 
all Jesuit education ever since. It underwent certain 
modifications in 1832; but these did not affect its spirit. 
It is both impossible and unnecessary to enter into the 
details of this here. Its general tendency has already 
been indicated. 

While it is impossible for lovers of truth and freedom 
to have any sympathy with either the aim or the matter 



188 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of Jesuit education, there is one point connected with 
it that well deserves our most serious consideration, and 
that is its success. This was due to three causes, first, 
to the single-minded devotion of the members of the 
society; second, to their clear insight into the needs of 
their time; third, to the completeness with which they 
systematized their entire course, in view of a single well- 
defined aim. In all these matters," we can well afford 
to imitate them. Indeed, the education of the present 
day demands just the three conditions which they real- 
ized: -first, a great, coherent society of teachers, utterly 
devoted to the work of education; second, a clear in- 
sight into the nature and scope of the education needed 
in our day; and, third, a completely graded system of 
instruction, worked out in view of the highest ideal of 
individual and social life. If the Jesuits can leave these 
three things as a bequest to the world, their existence 
will not have been in vain. 

We have seen that the field of primary education was 
left unoccupied by the Jesuits. Several attempts to oc- 
cupy it were made by others in the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries — by Father Calasanzio (died 1648), the 
founder of the Scuole Pie (Pious Schools), which in time 
became very numerous; by Father Demia who, in 1666, 
founded the Congregation of the Brethren of St. Charles, 
etc.; but no great advance was made until the advent 
of La Salle (1651-1719), the founder of the " Christian 
Schools," which are still in a flourishing condition. La 
Salle was a saint of ascetic tendencies, and deeply in- 
terested in the poor. He strove to do for the lower 
classes what the Jesuits had done for the upper, and 
with the same purpose. His program consisted of " the 



RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 189 

three R's," with spelling and catechism. He limited 
the use of corporal punishment, and laid great stress 
upon conduct; but he had no sense of the dignity of the 
child, or any desire that he should attain truth or moral 
freedom. He exalted authority, and did his best to cul- 
tivate submissiveness. The best that can be said of his 
work is that it was a great improvement upon anything 
existing in France before it. 

Thus, neither the Reformation, nor the counter-Refor- 
mation took any decided step forward in education — 
any step toward science and freedom — and the latter 
even took a step backward. Both left education in the 
hands of the clergy; both retained the principle of au- 
thority, and looked to tradition, not to nature and ex- 
perience, for truth. The same may be said of the Renais- 
sance, in so far as it was merely a resuscitation of the 
literature and science of the Greek world. It merely 
substituted one authority for another, in many cases 
the authority of Plato for that of Aristotle. Neverthe- 
less, it did pave the way for better things. By dividing 
the seat of authority, it helped to discredit and weaken 
authority itself; and by opening up the speculations of 
Greek science, it taught men to speculate on, and ulti- 
mately to investigate, the facts and processes of nature. 
When they did this, a new era began. 



DIVISION III. 

MODEBN EDUCATION 

CHAPTER I 

THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH 
CENTURIES 

There are two ways of reaching knowledge, the one by reasoning, 
the other by experience. Reasoning concludes, and enables us to 
conclude an inquiry ; but it does not impart certainty or remove 
doubt, enabling the spirit to rest in the intuition of truth, unless it 
finds truth by way of experience. — Roger Bacon. 

There are two kinds of experience. One comes through the ex- 
ternal senses ; and in this way we experience, by instruments made 
for the purpose, the things which are in heaven and, by facts certi- 
fied to vision, the things which are on earth ; while we know those 
things which do not occur in the places where we are through 
other wise men who have experienced them. This is human and 
philosophic experience. But this is not sufficient for man, because 
it does not impart complete certitude respecting things corporeal, by 
reason of their intrinsic difficulty, and is altogether barren in the case 
of things spiritual. The intellect, therefore, has to receive aid from 
another source ; for winch reason the holy patriarchs and prophets, 
who first gave sciences to the world, received internal illuminations, 
and were not confined to the senses. And the same is true of many 
believers through Christ. For much illumination comes through 
the grace of faith, and through divine inspirations, not only in 
spiritual, but also in corporeal things, and in the sciences of phi- 
losophy. — Id. 

190 



FIFTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 191 

He who, in disputing, cites an authority, makes use, not of his 
judgment, but of his memory. — Lionardo da Vinci. 

If I cannot, like them, cite authorities, I shall appeal to some- 
thing much higher and worthier, to experience, the mistress of 
their masters. — Id. 

With regard to authority, Lionardo da Vinci pronounces himself 
with as much clearness as Bacon. He shows all the absurdity, 
illogicality, and immorality, in that superstitious religion of an- 
tiquity. — Seailles, Leonard de Vinci, p. 187. 

Give me for a few years the direction of education, and I will 
undertake to transform the world. — Leibniz. 

Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu. 

The well educating of their children is so much the duty and 
concern of parents, and the welfare and prosperity of the nation so 
much depends on it, that I would have every one lay it seriously to 
heart; and, after having well examined and distinguished what 
fancy, custom, or reason advises in the case, set his helping hand 
to promote everywhere that way of training up youth, with regard 
to their several conditions, which is the easiest, shortest and like- 
liest to produce virtuous, useful, and able men, in their distinct 
callings ; though that most to be taken care of is the gentleman'9 
calling. For if those of that rank are by their education once set 
right, they will quickly bring all the rest into order. — Locke, Some 
Thoughts concerning Education (Epistle Dedicatory). 

Modern education, which is correlated with modern 
science, dates from the time when men began to study 
nature, and to record their experience. The first man 
who, in modern times, attempted to do this was the 
Franciscan friar, Eoger Bacon (1214—1294); but he, de- 
spite certain profound, and almost marvellous, insights, 
was still so deeply tinged with Mysticism and respect 
for authority that his efforts met with little or no re- 
sponse, and he spent many years of his life in prison, as 
a disturber of the faith. 



192 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The first man who really escaped from the fetters of 
authority and Mysticism, and committed himself fear- 
lessly to experience, was Lionardo da Vinci (1452-1519), 
perhaps the greatest genius that Europe ever saw,* and 
one whom we are but now coming fully to appreciate. 
" Scholasticism does not exist for him. A happy igno- 
rance sets him free, without his being aware of it. The 
separation of philosophy from theology is not even af- 
firmed, it is assumed."! " With as little effort, and 
with the same ease, he avoids the dangers of humanism. 
. . . Lionardo da Vinci is a modern man, free from 
humanism as from scholasticism." % The world has 
never known a more acute, interested, and genial ob- 
server than he, or a man more capable of expressing, in 
the forms of literature and art, the result of his observa- 
tions. He practised the method of science; but he did 
so without formulating it. 

The latter task was left for a man of another race, for 
the Englishman, Francis Bacon (15G1-1626), who, what- 
ever his errors, intellectual and moral, may be called the 
father of modern science. Aristotle, in ancient times, had 
advocated and practised (even better than Bacon!) in- 
duction^ in recent times, Bernardino Telesio (1508- 
1588) had insisted that all science must be based upon 
experience and induction; nevertheless, to Bacon be- 
longs the credit of having secured currency and following 
for the experimental and inductive method of science, 

*SeeHallam, Lit. Hist, of Europe, VoL I. p. 218. Seailles, Leonard 
de Vinci, V Artiste et le iSavant, Paris, 1892. Muntz, La Vie et les 
Aztvres de Leonard de Vinci. Paris, 1900. 

+ See Seailles, ut sup., p. 185. 

| Seailles, Leonard de Vinci, pp.185 seq. 

§ Bacon, like Luther and Ramus, was unjustly severe upon Aristotle, 
whom he did not understand. Like Luther and Knox, he showed a sad 
lack of scientific spirit in rejecting the Copernican astronomy. 



FIFTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 193 

as opposed to the authoritative and deductive. With 
him " book-science, which suppresses intelligence, on 
pretence of cultivating it," * came to an end, and was 
slowly replaced by the direct study of nature. Two 
great discoveries, that of the Copernican astronomy, and 
that of America, both contributing to break up that view 
of the universe which lay at the basis of mediaeval sci- 
ence, helped to facilitate this change. From now on, 
we find a tendency to withdraw education from authority 
and the hands of the clergy, and to commit it to science 
and the hands of laymen. 

Bacon himself did little directly for the cause of edu- 
cation; but his works proved an inspiration to men who 
did much. Prominent among these was the man who 
has been called the " Bacon of modern education," f 
and may justly be called its father — John Amos Co- 
menius.J There is no better testimony to the value of 
Bacon's method than the fact that, under its impulse, 
this man leapt, almost at one bound, from the repressive 
education of the Middle Age to the freedom-giving edu- 
cation of our own times. It may be truly said that all 
modern education has been built up upon the founda- 
tion which he laid. He saw and emphasized the need 

* Seailles, Leonard de Vinci, p. 188. 

t Compayre, Hist, of Pedagogy, p. 122 (Eng. Trans. ). 

% Properly Komensky, born at Nivnitz, Moravia, 1592 ; lost his parents 
early ; studied at Strassnick, Herborn (Nassau), Amsterdam, Heidel- 
berg. Made head of Moravian Brethren's school at Fulneck, 1618, when 
he was ordained and married ; driven out by persecution 1627 ; is called 
to superintend the education of several countries — Sweden, England, etc. ; 
works at Elbrog in Prussia, 1641-48 ; goes to Lissa in Poland, and be- 
comes senior bishop of the Moravians ; in Transylvania, 1650-54 ; in 
that year returns to Lissa, which is burnt by the Poles ; loses all his 
property, and has to retire to Amsterdam, to his patron De Geer. Spends 
a quiet old age, and publishes a complete edition of his pedagogical works ; 
dies 1671. See Art. Comeuius in "Universal Encyclopaedia " ; Laurie, 
Life of Comeuius ; Quick, Educational Reformers. 

13 



194 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of universal education, as the essential condition of uni- 
versal freedom, and, through good and evil report, de- 
voted himself to the instruction of the lower classes. The 
Jesuits had done something toward the systematization 
of the higher studies; but Comenius was the first who 
arranged a course of instruction extending from infancy 
to manhood — a course including four grades, or schools, 
(1) the home-school (Kindergarten!), (2) the primary, 
elementary, common, or district school, (3) the grammar 
or Latin school (gymnasium), (4) the academy, college, 
or university. The first, he held, should be found in 
every family; the second, in every village, parish or dis- 
trict; the third, in every city or township; the fourth in 
every kingdom, province, or state.* The course in each 
institution was to extend over six years, so that the pupil 
who took the whole should finish at the age of twenty- 
four. In one respect, each school was preparatory to all 
that followed it; in another, it was complete in itself, 
representing a certain grade of general education, cor- 
responding to a certain grade of vocation. The first two 
grades were to be traversed by every child, male or fe- 
male; and the instruction in them was to be given in 
the common language — hence the term, " common " 
schools. The two higher grades were to be taken by 
boys intending to pursue the higher professions, and in 
these he was still willing that Latin should be employed. 
With true pedagogic instinct, Comenius recognized 
that children's faculties should be drawn out in their 
natural order — perception, memory, imagination, rea- 
son f — and through things and facts rather than through 

* Cf . the Chinese system, pp. 41 sqq. 

+ Cf. Preyer, Die Seele des Kindes, and Baldwin, Mental Development 
in the Child and in the Race. 



FIFTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 195 

books, the function of the latter being to supplement the 
experience of the individual by that of the race. He saw 
that the latter can be interpreted only in terms of the 
former, and that where there is little individual experi- 
ence, the race experience recorded in books can be but 
poorly interpreted. He insisted that education begins at 
birth, and that very young children may, in the home, 
acquire the first elements of physics (dynamics, optics, 
acoustics), natural history (botany, zoology, etc.), history, 
geography, chronology, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, 
grammar, and even of logic, metaphysics, ethics and 
politics. With all this, he did not neglect physical ex- 
ercise and manual training. He fully recognized the 
intellectual and moral value of productive activity. He 
insisted that schools should be built in healthy situations, 
and have plenty of free space about them. In the pri- 
mary schools the home studies were to be carried further, 
others were to be added, and a rounded education, fitting 
for the ordinary walks of life, was to be imparted. In 
the higher institutions, foreign languages and the whole 
circle of the sciences were to be studied. The former 
were to be learnt by the natural method, grammar com- 
ing in merely as a corrective of use; the latter by ob- 
servation, experiment, and generalization. Comenius 
does not seem to have distinguished very clearly between 
culture, erudition, and professional training; and noth- 
ing better shows our dependence on him than the fact 
that in America they are not clearly distinguished to 
this day. Comenius, like Bacon, paid his tribute to the 
Middle Age, in adhering to the belief that science could 
be eked out with a sort of mystic vision and thaumaturgic 
activity, in such a way that man might finally come to 



196 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

have complete control over nature, as well as complete 
knowledge.* Of the many books which he wrote, the 
large majority show this mystic, theosophic tendency, his 
educational system being propounded, mainly, in three 
works — (1) Didaclica Magna (Czech and Latin), (2) 
Janua Linguarum Reserata, (3) Orbis Sensualium Ric- 
tus. The third is mainly the second, illustrated. 

With Comenius, the cause of truth and freedom in 
education was virtually won. Authority and tyranny 
had yielded to truth and sympathy. It was long, indeed, 
before the fruits of his victory were gathered. Protes- 
tantism, after its first enthusiasm of negation was over, 
more and more belied its own first principle, and bowed 
down before authority. The schools still remained al- 
most exclusively in the hands of the clergy. Comenius 
was almost forgotten till the present century. In spite 
of this, his influence never died out, but continued to 
inspire the later reformers of education. Locke, Eous- 
seau, Pestalozzi, and Frcebel, some of whom seem never 
to have heard of him, are, nevertheless, his pupils and 
continuators. Comenius is, emphatically, one of the 
Great Educators. 

The movement away from authority and toward free- 
dom, which found expression in the experimental science 
of Bacon and the pedagogy of Comenius, made itself felt 
in all the departments of human life, especially in re- 
ligion and politics. In religion, it produced the Refor- 
mation; in politics, that persistent tendency to ignore 
the divine right of kings, and to place the seat of author- 
ity in the people, which, beginning about 1600, has ever 
since been growing. English Puritanism and the Scotch 

* Like Prospero, in Shakespeare's Tempest. 



FIFTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 197 

Covenant were essentially democratic, though theocratic. 
They accepted God as ruler, indeed, but denied that he 
had any special vicegerent on earth. They used theoc- 
racy to shake off monarchy, and then dropped theocracy. 
The same thing took place among the Dutch. All this 
found practical expression in the two English revolu- 
tions (1649, 1688), and in the settlement of New Eng- 
land, which meant so many victories for freedom. 

But it was a considerable time before the movement 
became sufficiently conscious of its own meaning and 
presuppositions to give them conscious expression in a 
philosophy; and until this is done, no movement can 
display its whole strength or proceed securely. The 
Reformation, indeed, was so little aware of its own im- 
plications, that it remained for nearly a century and a 
half without a philosophy. At last, however, it formed 
this also, thanks to Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and 
John Locke (1632-1704). Widely different as these two 
men were, in race, education, and character, they agreed 
in looking for the guarantee of all truth in some form 
of experience, thus virtually placing the seat of all au- 
thority in the human breast — the very essence of Protes- 
tantism! The universal doubt, which Descartes cher- 
ished with regard to all external criteria of truth, he 
removed by reference to internal consciousness. " I 
think, therefore I am" — thought and being are one.* 
Locke practically said " Feeling and being are one." f 
Neither clearly saw all the implications of his own prin- 
ciple; but they came out later. All subsequent philoso- 
phy is built upon their foundations. Descartes, with 

* Cf. Parmenidea, To yap avrb voelv eariv re teal elvai. 

t His follower, Cabanis (1757-1808), said " Vivre c'est sentir." 



198 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

his Jesuit education, allowed himself to he drawn hack 
into a new dogmatism, and so undid much of his own 
good work. He managed to pass from his own heing to 
that of God, and then, on the hasis of God's assumed 
truthfulness, to "believe in the reality of the world — a 
distinct return to faith and authority. But he did most 
excellent service (1) in separating the world of thought 
from the world of extension,* and thereby banishing 
metaphysical entities — angels, intelligences, etc. — from 
the explanation of the phenomenal universe; and (2) also 
(by the resuscitation of the atomic doctrine of Democri- 
tus) in introducing mathematics into chemistry. Locke, 
with his sober protestant education, was less ambitious 
for absolute truth, being content to remain within the 
limits of experience. Descartes' philosophy naturally 
worked itself out into the pantheistic mysticism of 
Spinoza and the formal, metaphysical dogmatism of Wolf 
— barren enough results, both of them. That of Locke, 
after passing through the hands of Berkeley and Hume, 
woke Kant from his " dogmatic slumber," and made fur- 
ther progress possible. Thus, Locke may be said to be 
the father of modern thought, which rests on experience. 
Both Descartes and Locke contributed to the cause of 
education, the former indirectly, the latter directly. 
Animated by the modern spirit, and distrustful of the 
literary, backward-looking education of the Jesuits, 
Descartes demanded that the mind should be trained to 
think, and to deal with facts, not merely with words and 
authorities. He deprecated the prolonged study of the 
classical languages. In the first section of his earliest 
work, the Discourse on Method, he gives many valuable 

* In doing this, he was, of course, entirely wrong ; but his error did 
good service for a time. 



FIFTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTUEIES 199 

hints as to the mode of imparting information. He lays 
down the following rules for himself: (1) never to ac- 
cept as true what is not recognized as such so clearly and 
distinctly as to leave no room for doubt; (2) to break up 
every difficult problem, as far as possible, into its parts; 
(3) to think in an orderly manner, proceeding from the 
simpler and easier, step by step, to the more complex 
and difficult, even in cases where a special order is not 
prescribed by the nature of the subject, but is adopted 
for the sake of ordered progress in investigation; (4) by 
completeness of enumeration, and universality of survey, 
to make sure that nothing is overlooked. 

Locke's * direct contribution to education is contained 
in his little work, Some Thoughts concerning Education 
(1693), based partly on actual experience in teaching, and 
partly on current prejudices. It is not a treatise on edu- 
cation generally, but on how to " breed " an English 
gentleman of a somewhat formal and philistine sort. Its 
motto is " A sound mind in a sound body." Beginning 
with the latter, it lays down rules for exercise and hy- 
giene, which are summed up thus: " Plenty of open air, 
exercise and sleep; plain diet, no wine or strong drink, 
and very little or no physic; not too warm and strait 
clothing; especially the head and feet kept cold, and the 
feet often used to cold water and exposed to wet." f 

* John Locke, born at Wrington, near Bristol (1632) ; studied at West- 
minster school, then at Oxford (1 651 sqq. ) ; gave attention to natural 
science, and the works of William of Occam and Descartes ; accompanied 
Sir Walter Vane to the court of Brandenburg (1665) ; became physician 
and friend in the house of Lord Ashley, later Earl of Shaftesbury (1667) ; 
travelled with the Earl of Northumberland in France and Italy (1668) ; 
received a government office (1672) ; lived in southern France (1675- 
1679) ; in England (1679-1683) ; with the Earl of Pembroke in Holland 
(1683-1688); published Essay on the Human Understanding (1690); 
spent his last years in the house of Sir Francis Masham ; died there, at 
the a^e of 73, in 1704. 

t§30. 



200 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Passing on to the mind, it recommends for it a like 
hardening process. " As the strength of the body lies 
chiefly in being able to endure hardships, so also does 
that of the mind. And the great principle and founda- 
tion of all virtue and worth is placed in this, that a man 
is able to deny himself his own desires, cross his own 
inclinations, and purely follow what reason directs as 
best, though the appetite lean the other way." * With 
a view to this, discipline must be begun early, and paren- 
tal authority be firmly established. Punishments should 
be as light as possible; flogging and beating should be 
used only in the extreme case of conscious obstinacy; 
but then they should be continued until the child com- 
pletely yields. Eewards and decorations are discouraged, 
the proper motives to moral conduct being love of repu- 
tation, and praise and fear of the opposite — questionable 
enough motives, surely! Children should be allowed to 
be gamesome, and burdened with few rules, example 
being more powerful than precept. " Everyone's natural 
genius should be carried as far as it could; but to attempt 
the putting another upon him, will be but labor in vain; 
and what is so plastered on will at best sit but untowardly, 
and have always hanging to it the ungracefulness of 
constraint and affectation." f Children should not be 
troubled greatly with mere formal manners, which should 
be imparted rather by example than by rule. The impor- 
tant thing is to cultivate the right disposition, and then 
leave it to find its natural expression. " Never trouble 
yourself about those faults in them which you know age 
will cure." \ Children should have all possible liberty, and 
yet should be carefully shielded from bad company, ser- 
* § 33. t § 48. J § 50. 



FIFTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 201 

vants, bad boys, etc. Hence it is better that they should 
be instructed at home by a tutor than sent away to school 
among rude boys. " None of the things they are to learn 
should ever be made a burden to them, or imposed upon 
them as a task." * Learning should be like play.f Chil- 
dren love freedom, and, hence, should not be subjected 
to compulsion, or forced to do things when they are dis- 
inclined. They should be reasoned with and not scolded. 
A knowledge of the world, of men, and of their foibles 
is better than a knowledge of books. Hence, the tutor 
should be a gentleman, and a man of the world, rather 
than a scholar. " For who expects that under a tutor 
a young gentleman should be an accomplished critic, 
orator, or logician, go to the bottom of metaphysics, 
philosophy, or mathematics; or be a master in history 
or chronology? though something of each of these is to 
be taught him. . . . But of good breeding, knowl- 
edge of the world, virtue, industry, and a love of repu- 
tation, he cannot have too much. And, if he have these, 
he will not long want what he needs or desires of the 
other." X Parents should make every effort to gain and 
keep the confidence of their children, and to prove their 
best friends, at the same time sternly putting down ob- 
stinacy, lying, ill-nature, and love of dominion. Every 
effort should be made to satisfy children's curiosity, and 
to make them vain of their acquirements. || They should 
be taught to be deferential to each other, and to be just 
and generous. The generous child should not be al- 

* § 73. 

t Aristotle said, more wisely : " Education ought certainly not to be 
turned into a means of amusement ; for young people are not playing 
when they are learning, since all learning is accompanied with pain." 

; § 94. | §§ 108, 109. 



202 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

lowed to "be the loser by his generosity. "Let all the 
instances he gives of such freeness be always repaid, and 
with interest, and let him sensibly perceive that the kind- 
ness he shows to others is no ill husbandry for him- 
self. "* Crying should not be permitted, and, while fool- 
hardiness should be tamed, every effort should be made 
to cultivate courage and hardiness. Undesirable tastes 
should be cured by surfeiting, rather than by curbing. 
Games and play should be encouraged; but very few 
playthings should be given, except those which the chil- 
dren themselves manufacture. When children do wrong 
and confess, they should be pardoned and commended. 

The aims of education are Virtue, Wisdom, Breeding, 
Learning. The foundation of Virtue is " a true notion 
of God, as of the independent Supreme Being, Author 
and Maker of all things, from whom we receive all good, 
who loves us and gives us all things," f coupled with a 
love of truth. " Wisdom I take, in the popular accepta- 
tion, for a man's managing his business ably, and with 
foresight, in this world." % The fundamental principle 
of Good Breeding is " Not to think meanly of ourselves, 
and not to think meanly of others." || Among the aims 
of education, Learning is last in importance. " Children 
may be cozened into a knowledge of the letters; be 
taught to read without perceiving it to be anything but 
a sport, and play themselves into what others are whipped 
for. Children should not have anything like work, or 
serious, laid on them. " ^ " Cheer him [the child] into 
it [reading] if you can; but make it not a business for 
him." ** When he can read, he should take up JBsop's 
Fables (with pictures), the Paternoster, Creed, and 
* § 110, 3. t § 136. % § 140. || § 141. H § 149. *» § 155. 



FIFTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTUEIES 203 

Decalogue. The Bible, as a whole, is not a good text- 
book; but parts of it may be so used. After reading, come 
writing and drawing. Even shorthand may be acquired. 
Then come languages, of which the most important are 
French and Latin, both of which ought to be learnt in 
the natural way, by conversation. English ought not to 
be neglected. " Latin I look upon as absolutely neces- 
sary to a gentleman," * says Locke, and to a gentleman 
alone. Grammar should be taught only to those who 
desire a critical knowledge of a language, or who have 
officially to write in it. Along with languages should be 
learnt the sciences — geography, astronomy, arithmetic, 
chronology, anatomy, history, geometry, botany, geology, 
etc. These are better than abstract logic and meta- 
physics. Latin themes, declamations, and verses are for- 
bidden, and any tendency toward poetry ought to be 
sternly repressed. "It is to me the strangest thing in the 
world, that the father should desire or suffer it to be cher- 
ished or improved. Methinks the parents should labor to 
have it stifled and suppressed as much as may be; . . . 
for it is very seldom seen that anyone discovers mines of 
gold or silver in Parnassus. It is a pleasant air, but a 
barren soil; and there are very few instances of those 
who have added to their patrimony by anything they 
have reaped from thence. Poetry and gaming, which 
usually go together, are alike in this too, that they sel- 
dom bring any advantage but to those that have nothing 
else to live on. Men of estates almost constantly go away 
losers." f Ethics should be studied in the Bible and in 
" Tully's Offices " (Cicero, De Ofjtciis); Civil Law, which 
in connection with history, is most useful, in Puffendorf 
* § 164. t § 174. 



204 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and Grotius. " A virtuous, well-behaved young man 
that is well versed in the general part of the civil law 
. . . understands Latin well, and can write a good 
hand, one may turn loose into the world, with great as- 
surance that he will find employment and esteem every- 
where." * 

Though grammar, rhetoric, and logic are held of small 
account, yet " there can be no greater defect in a gen- 
tleman than not to express himself well, either in writing 
or speaking." f Especial attention should be paid to 
letter-writing in English. " Natural philosophy, as a 
speculative science, I imagine, we have none, and per- 
haps I may think I have reason to say, we shall never 
be able to make a science of it. The works of nature 
are contrived by a wisdom, and operate by ways, too far 
surpassing our faculties to discover, or capacities to con- 
ceive, for us ever to be able to reduce them into a science. 
Natural philosophy being the knowledge of principles, 
properties, and operations of things as they are in them- 
selves, I imagine there are two parts of it, one compre- 
hending spirits, with their nature and qualities, and the 
other bodies. The first of these is usually referred to 
metaphysics; but under what title soever the considera- 
tion of spirits comes, I think it ought to go before the 
study of matter and body, not as a science that can be 
methodized into a system, and treated of, upon principles 
of knowledge; but as an enlargement of our minds 
towards a truer and fuller comprehension of the intel- 
lectual world, to which we are led both by reason and 
revelation. And since the clearest and largest discoveries 
we have of other spirits, besides God and our own souls, 
* § 186. t § 189. 



FIFTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 205 

are imparted to us from heaven by revelation, I think the 
information, that at least young people should have of 
them, should be taken from revelation. To this end, 
I conclude, it would be well, if there were made a good 
history of the Bible for young people to read . . . 
that by reading of it constantly, there would be instilled 
into the minds of children a notion and belief of spirits, 
they having so much to do, in all the transactions of 
that history, which will be a good preparation for the 
study of bodies. For, without the notion and allowance 
of spirit, our philosophy will be lame and defective in 
one main part of it, when it leaves out the contemplation 
of the most excellent and powerful part of the crea- 
tion." * . . . " The reason why I would have this 
premised to the study of bodies, and the doctrine of the 
Scriptures well imbibed, before young men be entered 
in natural philosophy, is, because matter being a thing 
that all our senses are constantly conversant with, it is 
so apt to possess the mind, and exclude all other beings 
but matter, that prejudice, grounded on such principles, 
often leaves no room for the admittance of spirits, or 
the allowing of any such things as immaterial beings, 
' in rerum natura '; when yet it is evident, that by mere 
matter and motion, none of the great phenomena of nat- 
ure can be resolved; to instance but in that common 
one of gravity, which I think impossible to be explained 
by any natural operation of matter, or any other law of 
motion, but the positive will of a superior Being so or- 
dering it." f Despite this, it is well for " gentlemen " 
to know something of natural philosophy. " Such writ- 
ings ... as many of Mr. Boyle's are, with others 

* § 190. Some of this is directed against Descartes. t § 192. 



206 THE HISTORY OP EDUCATION 

that have writ of husbandry, planting, gardening, and 
the like, may be fit for a gentleman, when he has a 
little acquainted himself with some of the systems of 
natural philosophy in fashion." * The works of " the 
incomparable Mr. Newton " are especially deserving of 
study. 

Greek, like all languages, is valuable, but should not 
be studied until men have reached maturity. Dancing 
(not jigs!) should be learnt early; and fencing and rid- 
ing, though dangerous, are desirable; but music is of 
small account. " It wastes so much of a young man's 
time to gain but a moderate skill in it, and engages often 
in such odd company, that many think it much better 
spared: and I have, amongst men of parts and business, 
so seldom heard anyone commended or esteemed for hav- 
ing an excellency in music, that amongst all those things 
that ever came into the list of accomplishments, I think 
I may give it the last place." f 

With regard to recreation Locke has some fresh views. 
Being no great friend of unproductive amusements, and 
a distinct enemy of gambling (cards and dice), he advises 
every gentleman desiring serious recreation to learn a 
trade or craft. Painting would be good; but it is too 
sedentary. Better are gardening, husbandry, and car- 
pentry, and there is no objection to " perfuming, varnish- 
ing, graining, and several sorts of working in iron, brass 
and silver; and if, as it happens to most young gentle- 
men, that a considerable part of his time be spent in a 
great town, he may learn to cut, polish, and set precious 
stones, or employ himself in grinding and polishing op- 
tical glasses." \ Bookkeeping should be learnt by every 
* § 193. t § 197. % § 209. 



FIFTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 207 

gentleman, in order that he may look after his own ac- 
counts. Foreign travel is recommended, but not at the 
age (from sixteen to twenty-one) at which it is usually 
undertaken. It should come either earlier or later, not 
at the most critical period in a young man's life. 

Such is a brief summary of Locke's rather unsystematic 
work on the breeding of an English gentleman. Like 
everything that Locke wrote, it is marked by prosaic 
common sense and contented worldliness. He has little 
interest in art, science, or philosophy, or in what they 
may do for a man. He aims at discipline, not instruc- 
tion. He would impart as much instruction in accepted 
truth as is necessary for good breeding; but he would 
make no effort to rouse original thought or induce young 
men to strike out new paths for themselves. He has no 
sense of true morality, or of the " glorious freedom " 
that goes with it. His ethical motive, " love of praise 
and commendation," which he says " should be instilled 
by all arts imaginable," * is essentially immoral, and 
could produce nothing but vain prigs and conceited 
philistines. He makes no effort to arouse a sense of 
duty, or to use it as a spring of action. He would de- 
liver men from slavery to passion by making them slaves 
to their social environment. He has no conception of 
the methods and aims of physical science, and would 
still have us look for an explanation of the world to 
" spirits," best known to us through revelation. Thus 
science is still the handmaid of theology, and the door 
is left wide open for all kinds of superstition — possession, 
witchcraft, etc. He is what would to-day be called an 
" agnostic," endeavoring to hide his agnosticism under 
* § 201. 



208 THE HISTORY OP EDUCATION 

superstition.* In the higher regions of thought, his 
point of view does not essentially differ from that of the 
Jesuits. In education he replaces the authority of God 
hy the authority of polite society, the clergy by the landed 
gentry. The unsatisfactoriness of his philosophy will 
become clear when it passes into the hands of Berkeley 
and Hume; that of his educational system, when it comes 
to be interpreted by Rousseau. Locke was the father of 
modern scepticism, and its correlate, modern anarchism, 
best expressed in the French Revolution. Through these 
the world had to pass, before it reached the ground of 
science and of free government. 

Apart from the contributions of Descartes and Locke, 
the seventeenth century did little for education. Other 
interests, social and religious, were more absorbing. The 
efforts of Fenelon, with his work on the Education of 
Girls, of Madame de Sevigne, Madame de Maintenon, 
Rollin and others, did something to humanize education; 
but they all left the old foundation untouched, and rose 
to no new principle. The work of the Brothers of the 
Christian Schools has already been referred to. 

* He thinks that Noah's flood may have been due to God's altering the 
position of the earth's centre of gravity. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

The Englishman of the eighteenth century was greatly addicted 
to agriculture as a business or a pleasure, or both. It was the 
"reigning task" of the age. — Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of 
Work and Wages, p. 469. 

Thou hast destroyed it, Of the sons of earth, 

The beautiful world, More gloriously 

With mighty fist. Build it again, 

It sinks, it sunders. In the bosom build it up I 

A demigod hath shivered it. New life-career 

We carry Begin, 

The ruins over into naught, With clear sense, 

And wail over the lost beauty. And let new songs 

Mighty one Ring over it. 

— Gothe, Faust, Pt. I. 

It is worth while to know Social Philosophy, because, until we 
know that, we do not know what else it is worth while to know. — 
MacKenzie, Social Philosophy. 

When the seventeenth century closed, the Reformation 
and the Renaissance, the discovery of the Copernican 
astronomy and of America, the philosophies of Bacon, 
Hobbes, Descartes and Locke, and the English revolu- 
tions of 1649 and 1688 had separated mediaeval from 
modern times by a gulf which even imagination could 
hardly bridge. In all the spheres of life, authority was 
giving place to truth and to the freedom that comes of 
truth. The spirit of national and sectarian exclusive- 

209 



210 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ness was giving way to the spirit of humanity and free 
inquiry. Education was showing the effect of all this. 
It was slowly extending to all classes of society, and 
passing from the hands of the clergy to the those of the 
laity. The use of Latin was being replaced by that of 
living languages. The study of nature and of modern 
culture was receiving more and more attention. Men 
were being taught to live in the present and not in the 
past. With all this, however, the spirit that stirred in 
the great movements of the two preceding centuries had 
not yet received complete expression. The Reformation 
and the Renaissance had belied their own principles and 
found a place, beside truth and nature, for authority and 
supernature. The philosophies which were meant to 
give expression to the new spirit made truces with the- 
osophy and intolerance. Even the judicious, large- 
minded Locke refused freedom of thought to atheists, 
while Descartes was too timid to accept the Copernican 
astronomy. The English revolutions still left England 
with kings " by the grace of God." 

For all that, the forward movement was not checked, 
and the attempt to check it only brought revolution 
and destruction. The Reformation and the Renaissance 
found almost complete expression, respectively, in Vol- 
taire and Rousseau; the philosophy of Locke in the ab- 
solute scepticism of Hume, which left not one stone upon 
another of the whole mediaeval world of things or 
thought; the English revolutionary spirit, in the Amer- 
ican and French revolutions. In all these expressions 
the uncertain purpose and vacillating methods of the 
movement became clearly apparent. It had not yet 
learnt its own meaning. 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 211 

In the first half of the eighteenth century, no marked 
advance in education took place. It was a time of omi- 
nous calm, foreboding a storm. This calm was rudely 
broken in 1750, by the appearance of Rousseau* in the 
field of literature, with a bitter polemic against civiliza- 
tion and the demand that men should return to a " state 
of nature." Being himself a sensuous, indolent, and 
undisciplined creature, impatient of all moral restraint, 
he set out to construct a world which should justify his 
own existence and allow him to flatter himself, as he 
did, that he was one of the best of men. This is the true 
source of all his political and educational theories, and 
the secret of their wide influence. In the middle of last 
century, the repressive supernatural education of the 
Jesuits and Calvinists, which had not kept pace with 
advancing thought toward Eeason and Nature, produced, 
in favor of freedom, a strong reaction, which, in its early 
stages, was, naturally, exaggerated and reckless. At last, 



* Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born at Geneva (1712) ; loses his mother at 
his birth ; is kept at home and reads a whole library of sentimental 
novels before the age of seven ; goes to school at Boissey (1720) ; appren- 
ticed to a notary, then to an engraver (1723) ; runs away, becomes a 
Catholic, and is sent to Turin for religious instruction (1726) ; returns to 
Chambery (1729), and resides with the frivolous Madame de Warens ; 
is deserted by her for a time, returns to her (1732) and remains till 1741, 
reading science and philosophy in a desultory way, goes to Paris (1741), 
tries his fortune as a composer ; takes Therese Levasseur to live with 
him (1744) ; sends his children to the foundling asylum ; writes his essay 
on the moral effect of the Arts and Sciences (1750) ; that on Inequal- 
ity among Men (1753) ; returns to Geneva and protestantism (1754) ; 
settles at the Hermitage near Montmorency (1756) ; leaves this and takes 
a cottage nearby; writes the New JTeloise (1759), the Social Contract 
and Emile (1762) ; is bitterly persecuted, and flees to Switzerland (1762) ; 
thence with David Hume to England (1766) ; returns to France (1767) ; 
wanders about with Therese for three years ; settles down in Paris in 
humble fashion (1770) ; becomes morbid and unhappy ; writes Dialogues 
and Reveries ; goes to recruit at Ermenonville (May 1 778) ; dies July 2d 
of the same year ; his body removed to the Pantheon in Paris, October 
11, 1793. See my Rousseau and Education according to Nature, in the 
" Great Educator " series (Scribner's 1898). 



212 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Nature found a voice in Rousseau, as Reason did in Vol- 
taire. Both were opposed to Revelation. 

Man, in his upward progress, emancipated himself 
from slavery to nature, by submitting himself to human 
institutions; and he bids fair, by making these the ex- 
pression of his own social nature, to emancipate himself 
from them also, and thus be entirely free. Rousseau, 
not seeing this, and not recognizing bondage to nature 
as slavery at all, called upon men to throw aside institu- 
tions, as having only a corrupting, distorting influence, 
and return to the state of the unsocial savage. This is 
the burden of his three political essays, especially of the 
Social Contract, which opens with " Man is born free, 
and is everywhere in chains." His educational writings, 
of which the chief is Emile, are meant to furnish the 
program of unsocial education, of which he found an 
embodiment in Robinson Crusoe.* He draws a good deal 
of his material from Montaigne and Locke, especially 
from the latter, whose positions frequently show their 
essential weakness in his hands. The principles by means 
of which Locke meant to maintain a stable society, and 
to educate men for it, Rousseau turned into instruments 
for the subversion of all society and the education of men 
for the life of savages. Utterly despising Locke's ethical 
sanction, the approval of society, he was left with no 
sanction at all but the brute necessity of nature; and, 
indeed, this was the only one to which he appealed. 
Nature, which, as usually understood, is but another 
name for necessity,! plays a most important and funda- 

* He does not seem to have known Ibn Tufail's Eayy ibn Yokdhan 
(twelfth century), long such a favorite with the Quakers, and much 
more to his purpose. 

t It was the notion of necessity (ivayioj, fiotpa, alcro, etc. ) that developed 
into that of nature (<J>iio-t?) in Greece. 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 213 

mental part in education, and Eousseau does excellent 
work, so long as he champions it in its own sphere; but 
he is most pernicious, when he claims the whole of edu- 
cation for it. When he follows Locke, in demanding for 
children freedom, exercise, fresh air, etc., we can com- 
pletely sympathize with him; but, when he makes 
Locke's demand that children should be placed under a 
tutor at home, instead of being sent to school, mean that 
they should be separated from family and society, and 
placed, singly, in the hands of a tutor who on all occa- 
sions behaves like a part of brute nature, he is dehu- 
manizing them, and making impossible the growth of 
any social or moral consciousness. Locke, while highly 
recommending moral discipline, as the indispensable con- 
dition of all education, had most unwisely said that no 
tasks should be imposed upon children, and that they 
were to be " cozened," or " cheated " into learning even 
to read. Eousseau extends this so as to make the whole 
of education a cheat. His Emile is to be cheated and 
duped at every step, and it is the poorest compliment to 
his education that this is possible. The motives by which 
he is led are all of the selfish, unsocial sort, and, indeed, 
are nearly always sensual. Sensual enjoyment, Eousseau 
claims to be true living. " What," he says, " are we to 
think of that barbarous education which sacrifices the 
present to an uncertain future, which loads the child 
with all sorts of chains, and begins by rendering it mis- 
erable, in order to prepare it for some distant, pretended 
happiness, which it will probably never enjoy? . . . 
Who knows how many children perish, victims of the 
extravagant wisdom of a father or a teacher? . . . 
Fathers, do you know the moment when death awaits 



214 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

your children? ... As soon as they are able to feel 
the pleasure of being, see that they enjoy it; take care 
that . . . they do not die without having tasted life. 
. . . Miserable foresight, which renders a being un- 
happy in the present, in the ill-founded hope of making 
him happy in the future. . . . Everything is folly 
and contradiction in human institutions. . . . Fore- 
sight! foresight, which continually carries us beyond our- 
selves, and often places us where we shall never really 
arrive, is the true source of all our miseries. What folly 
for an ephemeral being, like man, to be looking forever 
into a distant future, which rarely comes, and to neglect 
the present, of which he is sure! . . . The only man 
who does his will is he who, in order to do so, has no 
need to eke out his own arms with those of another; 
whence it follows that the first of all blessings is not au- 
thority, hut liberty. This is my fundamental maxim. 
We have but to apply it to childhood, and all the rules of 
education will flow from it." * 

The writer may, perhaps, be allowed to quote here a 
passage from his own Rousseau, commenting on these 
sentiments: "The end of life is happiness, and happi- 
ness is the sensual enjoyment of each moment as it passes, 
without thought, plan, or aspiration for higher things, 
nay, without regard to others. All efforts after a divine 
life of deep insight, strong, just affection, and far-reach- 
ing beneficent will, all unions among men for the reali- 
zation of this life, in and through society, are folly and 
contradiction. To live as the beast lives, in his appointed 
place, is the chief end of man. Because some children 
die before they reach youth or manhood, it is cruel to 

* Emile, Bk. H. 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 215 

deprive any, through discipline, self-denying continuous 
tasks, or thought of the future, of the manifold, thought- 
less delights of the present. Discipline and self-control 
have no value in themselves; at hest they are but means 
for future pleasure. The child that dies without having 
enjoyed pleasure has not 'tasted of life.' No matter 
what his spiritual attainments, or the beauty and nobility 
of his character, his existence has been a failure. What- 
ever interferes with present pleasure is evil. 

" It would hardly be possible to form a more pitiful 
conception of human life and education than this. There 
is not a moral or noble trait in it. The truth is, Eous- 
seau was so purely a creature of sense and undisciplined 
impulse that he never, for one moment, rose to a con- 
sciousness of moral life at all." * 

Indeed, he thought moral life an egregious blunder. 
Speaking of his Emile, he says: " Devoid of all morality 
in his actions, he can do nothing that is morally evil, or 
that deserves chastisement or reprimand." He had small 
respect even for intellectual life. "Exercise," he says, 
" the child's body, his organs, his senses, his strength; 
but keep his mind indolent as long as possible. . . . 
Look upon all delays as advantages ... let childhood 
ripen in children. ... If a lesson has to be given, 
do not give it to-day, if it can be put off till to-morrow." 

It would be unprofitable to follow Emile through the 
further stages of his anti-social education. It is all of 
a piece, aiming to produce a docile animal. Indeed, it 
is just such an education as a high-bred dog might re- 
ceive. He, of course, learns a trade, because he thus 
comes to be able to use his hands, and so to be inde- 

* Davidson, Rousseau, pp. 118 seq. 



216 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

pendent of society; but he avoids all intellectual and 
social culture. " Reading is the curse of childhood/' and 
" since our errors come from our judgments, it is clear 
that, if we never had to judge, we should never have to 
learn, and never be liable to deceive ourselves. We should 
be happier in our ignorance than we can be in our 
knowledge." 

In course of time, Emile is ready to take a wife; and 
a suitable one, thanks to that good genius, the tutor, is 
ready for him. This gives Rousseau an opportunity of 
stating his views on the education of girls. And they 
are such as we might expect. " Woman is made to please 
man. . . . Thus all the education of women must 
have relation to men. To please them, to be useful to 
them, to rear them when they are young, to tend them 
when they are grown, to make their lives pleasant and 
sweet — these are the duties of women in all times, and 
what they ought to learn from earliest childhood. . . . 
Woman is a coquette by profession. . . . Girls must 
be wide-awake and laborious; more than that, they must 
be early subjected to repression. . . . From the first 
they must be exercised in constraint, so that it may never 
cost them anything; and taught to overcome all their 
fancies, in order to subject them to the will of others. 
. . . From this habitual constraint there results a 
docility, which women have need of all their lives, since 
they never cease to be subjected either to a man or to 
the judgments of men, without ever being allowed to set 
themselves above these judgments. The first and most 
important attribute of a woman is sweetness. Being made 
to obey an imperfect being like man, often so full of 
vices, and always so full of faults, she must early learn 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 217 

to submit even to injustice, and to bear the misdeeds of 
a husband without complaining. . . . She must never 
scold. . . . While a man speaks what he knows, a 
woman speaks what pleases. . . . We ought not, there- 
fore, to stop the chatter of girls. . . . They must 
make it a rule never to say anything but what is agree- 
able to those with whom they talk." And so on for many 
pages. 

Emile, of course, falls violently in love with Sophie, 
and, in due time, is engaged to her. Then this young 
man, who has been reared as a mere sensuous animal, is 
called upon to behave, all at once, like a Stoic. Before 
marrying, he is commanded by his inexorable tutor to 
thwart nature completely, to leave Sophie, and travel 
for two years, in order to see the world, and find a fit 
place to settle down in. The parting scene shows that 
Rousseau had no sense of the ludicrous. Emile, in course 
of time, returns, charged with Stoic independence, mar- 
ries Sophie, and is blest with a son. On the birth of the 
latter, Emile says to his tutor: " Eemain the master of 
the young masters. Advise us, govern us: we will be 
docile. As long as I live, I shall need you. I have more 
need of you than ever, now that my functions as a man 
are beginning." It would hardly be possible to pass a 
severer judgment than this upon Emile's education. 
Though a husband and father, he has no power to guide 
himself, but is completely dependent upon another. Nor 
could this be otherwise, since, though duped into believ- 
ing that he has always been guiding himself, he has, in 
reality, been a mere puppet in his tutor's hands. 

After a time, the tutor leaves his wards, and then all 
sorts of mischief happen. The poor creatures, who have 



218 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

been living in the quiet retirement of the country, are 
induced to go to live in a city, to mingle with men. Here 
Emile acquires frivolous tastes, and Sophie falls from 
virtue, which is just what might be expected from such 
inexperienced people. After various vicissitudes, Emile 
finds his way to a lonely island (Robinson Crusoe's?), 
where, to his surprise, he finds Sophie officiating as a 
priestess. After explanations, a reconciliation takes place, 
and the two, having seen enough of society, and proved 
for themselves its degrading influence, remain on their 
island, as " solitaries," and — are happy ever after! 

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to pass any judgment on a 
scheme of education of which this is the outcome. It 
judges itself. Indeed, it would hardly have justified the 
attention here given to it, were it not for the sensation 
which its glittering paradoxes and sentimental appeals 
caused, and unhappily, still cause, in the world. Rous- 
seau took no step forward in education. What is true 
in his scheme is due, mostly, to Locke; what is his own 
is false and misleading. Though pretending to have 
great sympathy with the lower classes, he is opposed to 
their being educated. " Ignorance is bliss." The sober 
truth is, he understood almost nothing either of the 
methods or of the aims of education, and it was only his 
insidious, dogmatic, and sentimental style that made him 
popular with people who knew as little as he did. His 
anarchic, unsocial individualism and his demand for im- 
mediate, sensual pleasure co-operated with Voltaire's all- 
dissolving intellectual scepticism in bringing about the 
French Revolution, and in imparting to it those char- 
acteristics which rendered it so ineffective for good. Vol- 
taire broke the old theological social bonds; Rousseau 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 219 

forbade man to look for new ones in reason.* The re- 
sult could hardly have been other than it was, a furious 
revolution, followed by a blind reaction. If France is 
to-day rent by the opposing claims of theological author- 
ity and sensual anarchism, we know the reason why. 

The sun of the eighteenth century set in blood, be- 
cause old moral sanctions had failed, and new ones had 
not been found. Before such could be found; before edu- 
cation and civilization could advance to higher ground, 
a new philosophy, furnishing a true interpretation of the 
growing movement toward truth and freedom, a new 
view of the world and man's relation to it, had to arise. 
And it did arise, or rather it had arisen (too late to be of 
service in the great cataclysm) in the minds of the half- 
Scotch, half -German Immanuel Kant,f with whom a 
new era in the world's spiritual history begins. 

* As Socrates did, in similar circumstances. France found no So- 
crates. 

+ Born at Konigsberg, 1724, and lived there, as student, private tutor, 
librarian, and professor, his entire life. His epoch-making work, the 
Critique of Pure Heason, appeared in 1781. He died in 1804. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE NINETEENTH CENTUEY 

Two things more me to ever greater awe ; the starry heavens 
above me and the moral law within me. Duty ! Word so sublime 
and full of meaning, whence art thou, and what origin is worthy of 
thee? Thou dost not appeal to us through the persuasiveness of pas- 
sion; nor by threats dost thou seek to stir our wills. Thou wouldst 
not have us shrink from thee in fear and terror. But thou settest 
up a law which is of our own souls ; to this law thou exactest un- 
conditional submission. Before the law we bow in awe, even 
though not always in obedience; all feelings retire before it in 
silence, even though they may seek to evade its decrees. — Kant. 

The understanding creates the world. — Kant. 

Man is man and master of his fate. — Tennyson. 

The antithesis . . . between the self and the world is not a 
valid antithesis psychologically considered. The self is realized by 
taking in " copies" from the world and the world is enabled to set 
higher copies only through the constant reactions of the individual 
self upon it. Morally I am as much a part of society as physically 
I am a part of the world's fauna ; and as my body gets its best ex- 
planation from the point of view of its place in a zoological scale, 
so morally I occupy a place in a social order ; and an important 
factor in the understanding of me is the understanding of it. — 
Baldwin, Mental Development, etc., pp. 487 seq. 

The presiding genius of the spiritual life of the nine- 
teenth century is Kant, the modern Socrates. This is 
not the place to give an account of his mental develop- 
ment. Suffice it to say that he gathered up in himself, 

220 



THE NINETEENTH CENTUKY 221 

and did his best to harmonize, all the forward movements 
of the three preceding centuries. Descartes and Locke 
met in him. He set the dogmatism of Wolf off against 
the scepticism of Hume, and found both equally unsat- 
isfying. Hume, the modern Protagoras, had completely 
dissolved the independent, given world of ancient and 
mediseval thought, and defied men to prove the existence 
of any world other than that composed of their own im- 
pressions and ideas. Here was individualism with a 
vengeance! Kant clearly saw that Hume could not be 
refuted, and that he had completely changed the aspect 
of the philosophic problem. Of old the question had 
been: How does a world existing external to, and inde- 
pendent of thought, find its way into the human con- 
sciousness? Now it is: How does the mind, whose world 
consists solely of its own experience, ever come to think 
that there is a world external to, and independent of, 
that experience? It was no longer, How does the world 
get into the mind, but, How does it get out of the mind ? 
— no longer, How does the mind appropriate a world 
already existing? but, How does it build up any world 
of which it can predicate existence? Kant saw that this 
was as great a change in the spiritual world as the Co- 
pernican astronomy had been in the material. According 
to the new view, education is no longer world-appropria- 
tion, but world-building. Each man, by his own mental 
processes, builds up his own world. The question is: 
How is this done? and Kant undertakes to reply. The 
subjectivism of Descartes and Locke has come to frui- 
tion; Protestantism has found its philosophy; freedom, 
its essential condition. 

Next to Hume, it was perhaps Rousseau who most 



222 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

deeply influenced Kant. Hardly any two men were ever 
more dissimilar in character and aims than the Genevese 
sensualist and the Konigsberg rigorist; and yet the one 
had something to give to the other. There was more in 
Rousseau besides his sensuous, unsocial ideal of life, and 
his absurd notions about education. His passionate love 
of nature, his glowing descriptions of its simple delights, 
and his call to men to abandon burdensome and distort- 
ing conventionalities and live a natural life, formed a 
timely message, which the world needed, and which it 
received with gladness. It convinced Kant that true 
human progress is progress in living, and not merely in 
knowing. To live truth is better than to know it.* If 
the intellectual scepticism of Voltaire influenced him but 
slightly, it was because it was a mild affair compared 
with that of Hume, which was thoroughgoing. 

Stirred up by Hume and Eousseau, Kant sent forth 
this message to the world, and particularly to its teachers: 
Let each soul build up within itself a coherent and ra- 
tional world, so that it can lead a free, moral, natural 
life in the society of other souls. This is not, indeed, 
Kant's formulation of it; but this is what he meant. 
His timidity \ and a curious and a very illogical assump- 
tion of " things-in-themselves," independent of thought, 
introduced confusion and contradiction into his system, 
and left open the door for a new dogmatism, such as we 
find in Schelling and Hegel, and a new scepticism (re- 
christened agnosticism), represented by men like Mansel, 

* On the effect of Rousseau's teaching upon subsequent literature, see 
my Rousseau, pp. 211-244 

+ He Baid : l 'I have the very clearest conviction of much that I shall 
never have the courage to say ; but I shall never say what I do not 
think." 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 223 

Huxley, and Spencer. It is often wise to accept a man's 
principles, and ignore the conclusions which his timidity 
drew from them. If we do this with Kant, we shall find 
that his message is clear and strong. It is needless to 
say that, unless the ultimate in being be identical with 
the ultimate in knowledge, there is no possible escape 
from scepticism, or dogmatism, which is but disingenu- 
ous scepticism. Could Kant have seen that feeling is 
the ultimate both in being and in thought, the true 
thing-in-itself, all his difficulties would have vanished, 
and the fundamental conditions of moral life would have 
become something more than " postulates " for him.* 
Even his " categorical imperative " would have been un- 
necessary, because he would have found the source of 
all moral authority in the human breast. 

After Kant's death, the extravagances and horrors of 
the French Eevolution, in which the forces of freedom 
had prematurely exploded, caused a reaction against 
freedom itself, and a return to medievalism, authority, 
and supernaturalism. In Catholic countries, this took 
the form of a romantic, sentimental Neo-Catholicism; 
in some Protestant countries, that of a return to Neo- 
Platonism or philosophic mysticism. f This reaction, 
naturally, affected education, leaving it, to a large ex- 
tent, on the old lines and in the hands of the clergy. 
Nevertheless, the new Neo-Platonism, being, like the old, 
essentially evolutionary, did valuable work in its way, 

* I am here assuming in my readers a certain acquaintance with Kant's 
philosophy. If this seems unwise, I would only say that without a 
knowledge of that philosophy it is impossible to understand the educa- 
tional movements and needs of the present. 

t The " Restoration-Philosophy " of Hegel is quite as reactionary in 
principle as the Catholicism of Bonnet and Chateaubriand. It is need- 
less to say that Catholicism remains irrevocably committed to the prin- 
ciples of tradition and authority. 



224 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION" 

by showing that there is order and development in the 
process of the world, and offering a new field and 
meaning to science. Though it still, in spite of Kant's 
warning,* functioned with empty logical abstractions — 
Being, Naught, Becoming, etc. — instead of with the 
concrete facts of existence, and, therefore, frequently 
arrived at arbitrary and false results, fatal to liberty, it, 
nevertheless, performed a great service, in insisting upon 
the fact that the material of science and education is 
a process, an evolution, and can be explained only as 
such.f Thus it was that ideal, paved the way for real, 
evolution. 

In spite of this, it was not from the reactionary move- 
ments, Catholic or Protestant, of the early part of this 
century, that advances in education sprang, but rather 
from those freedom-seeking movements of the eigh- 
teenth, which received a temporary check in the French 
Eevolution. They can nearly all be traced back to 
Rousseau and Kant, and may be classed under five heads 
(1) the instructors, (2) the instructed, (3) the matter 
of instruction, (4) the methods of instruction, (5) the 
end of instruction. 

(1) Advance with reference to instructors: From the 
days of Alcuin to the rise of Protestantism, education 
was almost entirely in the hands of the clergy. Since 
that event, but particularly since the French Revolu- 
tion, there has been an increasing tendency to withdraw 



* "Thoughts without content are empty ; intuitions without concepts 
are blind." — Kant, Critique of Pure Reason. 

+ It is interesting to note that all the ancient words for nature (</>uViy, 
yeVeo-if, naturd) have this meaning. Our modern terms, evolution and 
development, have false implications. Growth is not merely a mechani- 
cal unfolding. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 225 

it from their hands and place it in those of laymen. 
Along with this has gone a tendency to withdraw it 
from the Church altogether, and hand it over to the 
State. At the present day a system of state education, 
conducted chiefly by laymen, prevails in all protestant, 
and also in some catholic and " orthodox," countries, 
such as Italy and Greece. Even Egypt has such a sys- 
tem. It is not long since every college and university 
in the United States thought it necessary to have a 
clergyman for president. At present a very large num- 
ber have lay presidents, and that number is yearly in- 
creasing. Even in our public schools there is very little 
tendency to allow the clergy to give instruction even in 
their special subject — religion. What religious instruc- 
tion there is, is usually imparted by the ordinary lay 
teachers, the majority of whom are women. 

(2) Advance with reference to the instructed: In the 
Middle Age, education, in the sense of " book-learning," 
was confined almost entirely to the clergy, while the 
nobility obtained instruction in what may be called the 
knightly arts at the courts of princes or bishops.* The 
Reformation and Eenaissance extended book-learning 
to the well-to-do classes generally; but very little was 
done for the poor, or laboring classes. Even Locke re- 
fused to consider them, and Rousseau bluntly declared 
that they needed no education. It was the attainment 
of self-consciousness by the people f at the French Revo- 
lution, coupled with Kant's contention that every hu- 

*See the Introduction of The Babees Book, in the Publications of the 
Early English Text Society. 

t It is but fair to say that Rousseau, despite his opposition to popular 
education, greatly contributed to this, by his intense sympathy with the 
life of the people. 

15 



226 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

man being is his own end, that imparted to the cause 
of popular education that impulse which, during the 
greater part of this century, has been spreading from 
land to land. At the present day there is a general con- 
sensus that education ought to be universal, and, in- 
deed, it must be so in every democratic country that 
hopes to continue such. Without education liberty is 
impossible, 

(3) Advance with reference to the matter of instruc- 
tion: While education was in the hands of the clergy, 
the subjects studied were chiefly those relating to re- 
ligion and the supernatural. Not only philosophy, but 
all science, was held to be ancillary to theology. Rea- 
son itself had to accept dictation from authority. Nat- 
ure and the natural sciences, culture and the culture 
sciences, received but little attention. Education, look- 
ing backwards, strove to impart ancient, especially " re- 
vealed " truth, frequently displaying a dread of the 
intrusion of new truth.* Revelation had shown what 
nature must be; the followers of revelation cared little 
to inquire what it was. In proportion as education has 
passed into the hands of the State and the laity, it has, 
more and more, turned its attention to nature, and life 
in nature. Instead of reasoning downward from causes, 
or a Cause, supposed to be independently known, to ef- 
fects or facts, it examines the facts, and reasons up from 
them to their causes, determining the latter wholly by 
the former. This is the method of science, as opposed 
to that of theology. It follows naturally that, whereas 
the subjects of the old education consisted of authori- 
tative texts, calling for an ascetic discipline, those of the 

*See White, Hist, of the Warfare of Theology ivith Science. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 227 

new education are the facts of nature and culture, call- 
ing for a many-sided development of the individual, as 
essentially a social being. 

(4) Advance in the methods of instruction: Learn- 
ing by heart and cultivating obedience, under dread of 
the rod, was, on the whole, the method of the older 
education. All needful truth being known, the teacher 
had only to impart it, and this was most readily done 
through the memory, which could be quickened by the 
rod.* Even the rules of arithmetic were committed to 
memory, no attempt being made to understand them.f 
Moreover, since all truth depended upon authority, the 
proper attitude toward it was, not comprehension, but 
acceptance and obedience. Discussion, to be sure, there 
was in abundance, especially in the Jesuit schools; but, 
as the conclusion, in every case, was known beforehand, 
it could be little more than a pretence at a search for 
truth. Truth uncomprehended could not be intelli- 
gently obeyed: hence the need for the rod. J In all 
this, the new education stands in almost direct opposi- 
tion to the old. It makes authority dependent upon 
truth rationally comprehended, and trusts to such com- 
prehension for conformable conduct. In a word, while 
the old education was education for subordination, the 
new education is education for freedom, or intelligent 
cooperation. The latter, therefore, endeavors, not to 
crowd the memory with words, but to develop the in- 

*And how it can be quickened! A few years ago, I found, in the 
"waqf " schools of Cairo, many boys of fourteen and fifteen, who could 
repeat the entire Qoran, a work about as long as the New Testament. 

t This within my own memory. 

% The extent to which the rod was used, even in recent times, is now 
almost incredible. I have known of fathers complaining because their 
boys were not "thrashed" at school. Cf. Hinsdale, Horace Mann. pp. 
190 sqq. yi 



228 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

telligence, by the direct study of the facts of reality. It 
is a parent, guiding the mind, not a slava-master, driv- 
ing it. It is daily becoming better aware of its own con- 
ditions and implications, as it shows plainly, by its in- 
sistence upon " child-study," which, no doubt, will soon 
be supplemented by parent-study, teacher-study, and the 
study of social environment. 

(5) Advance with reference to the end of education: 
The aim of the old education was to prepare for another 
world, for a life after death. Its view of this world is 
admirably expressed by Moore: 

"The world is ail a passing show, 

For man's illusion given : 
The smiles of joy, the tears of woe, 
Deceitful shine, deceitful flow : 

There's nothing true but Heaven." 

With such a view, this life was, of course, despised, and 
provision made for it only reluctantly. The body, as 
belonging to this world, was shamefully neglected, and 
at certain periods recklessly abused. The laws of civic 
life were ignored, so that society often sank into bar- 
barism. The path of moral life was not supposed to 
lead to heaven, but at best to limbo.* Only the path 
of faith and ecclesiastical observance led to the former. 
The aim of the new education is very different. While 

*See Dante, Sell, IV., 31-42. "Thou askest not what spirits theae 
are which thou seest ? Now I wish thee to know, before thou goest 
further, that they sinned not ; and if they have merits, it sufficeth not, 
because they had not baptism, which is part of the faith which thou 
believest. And if they lived before Christianity, they worshipped not 
God duly. And of these same am I [Virgil] myself. For such defects, 
and for no other sin, we are lost, and are only so far afflicted that, with- 
out hope, we live in desire." It would be easy to match this view from 
the works of recent writers, Cardinal Newman, Henry Drummond, etc. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 229 

by no means setting lightly by, or denying, eternal life, 
it insists upon making the most of this life, holding it 
to be a phase of the other, preparatory to all other pos- 
sible phases. The more completely we unfold our pow- 
ers, and perform our duties, personal, domestic, social, 
political, in this life, the better prepared shall we be to 
enter upon the functions and joys of another.* Hence 
the new education sets up, as its aim, the highest de- 
velopment of the social individual, in all the faculties 
of body, soul, and spirit. It seeks to prepare men for a 
heaven hereafter by inducing them to create a heaven 
here and now. It is true, indeed, that it does not al- 
ways show itself conscious of this great purpose, finding 
much difficulty in freeing itself from mediae valism; but, 
as time advances, this consciousness grows clearer and 
clearer. 

Such is the new education, as contrasted with the old. 
It remains for us to trace briefly its progress thus far, 
and to indicate its future course. In doing so, we must 
confine our attention to salient points, abandoning all 
attempt to follow it in detail, or in different countries. 
These points are marked by a few great names. 

The first man who took a notable step forward in 
education, on the lines of Rousseau and Kant — that 
is, toward Nature and Reason — was Pestalozzi,f who, 
though born before the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

*See Matthew XXV. 14-30. 

t Heinrich Pestalozzi, born at Zurich, 1746; loses his father, 1751 ; fol- 
lows agriculture, 1765-75 ; conducts a primary school for poor children 
on his farm at Neuhof, 1775-80 ; becomes a writer on education, 1780-87 ; 
resumes agriculture, 1787-97 ; made a citizen of Prance, with Washington 
and Klopstock, 1792; conducts orphan asylum at Stanz, 1798-99; the 
schools at Burgdorf, 1799-1802 ; visits Paris, 1803 ; conducts a secondary 
Bchool at Yverdun, 1805-24 ; returns to JNeuhof, 1824 ; dies, 1827. 



230 THE HISTOEY OF EDUCATION 

tury, belongs in spirit, and largely in activity, to the 
nineteenth. With little learning, and less system, but 
with overwhelming faith in the people and love for chil- 
dren, this warm-hearted, devoted man may fairly be said 
to be the father of modern popular education. In depth 
of feeling, he resembled Rousseau, from whom he bor- 
rowed much; but, unlike Rousseau, he was inspired with 
a lofty morality and sense of duty, which made him con- 
secrate his life to education, as the only means whereby 
the people might be redeemed from vice, degradation, 
and misery. His practical results cannot be estimated 
highly, and his books are full of wordy sentimentality 
and confusion; but, in spite of this, he succeeded in 
imparting a new spirit and scope to education, in almost 
every direction. Above all, he insisted that education 
should be extended to the whole people, that its methods 
should be kindly and considerate, and that it should 
relate to things rather than to words, to facts rather 
than to rules. He aimed to cultivate not merely the 
intelligence, but also, and still more, the affections, the 
moral judgment, and the will. He insisted that children 
should learn not only to think, but also to do, and hence 
that education should consist largely of manual labor. 

Whatever success Pestalozzi had was due, not to any 
reasoned plan or clear ideal, but to the infectious en- 
thusiasm of his ardent, loving personality. If Rousseau 
is the parent of the modern love of nature, Pestalozzi is 
the parent of the modern love for children, and it is this 
love that has transformed education from a harsh, re- 
pressive discipline into a tender, thoughtful guidance. In 
Pestalozzi, Rousseau's demand for an education through 
nature, and Kant's demand that every human being 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 231 

should be regarded as his own end, met and found real- 
ization, through love that fuses all things. If Rousseau 
had made men aware of the glories of nature, Pestalozzi 
demanded that children should be made acquainted with 
them. If Kant had emphasized the worth of the in- 
dividual soul, Pestalozzi insisted that that worth should 
be realized and recognized. The recognition of nature 
led to science, that of individual worth to true ethics. 
After Pestalozzi, people saw children with new eyes, in- 
vested them with new interest, and felt the importance 
of placing them in a true relation to the world of nat- 
ure and culture. It is not too much to say that all 
modern education breathes the spirit of Pestalozzi. It 
is education for freedom, not for subordination. 

Nevertheless, Pestalozzi's work, like Rousseau's, was 
of the nature of a reaction, and, like all reactions, one- 
sided. The older education had directed its attention 
mainly to the memory, and operated through authority. 
Pestalozzi, turning his back on both these, sought to 
develop the powers of observation and generalization, 
and to operate through love. The reaction was most 
salutary; but it needed to be corrected. After all, mem- 
ory and authority have a legitimate place in education, 
as in life, and cannot safely be neglected. Observation 
without memory, and love without authority, are vain, 
as was plainly shown by the failure of all Pestalozzi's 
practical experiments in teaching. 

To remedy the defects of his system, to round and 
complete it, has been the task of Pestalozzi's followers, 
among whom must count every prominent teacher of 
the century. This task, which is far profounder than 
the pioneer Pestalozzi conceived it to be, resolves itself 



232 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

into this: How to construct in the soul of the child such 
a world that it shall find therein complete and harmoni- 
ous exercise for all its faculties, intellectual, affectional, 
volitional. With a view to this it becomes necessary 
to study the powers of the child, the processes by which 
knowledge is acquired, arranged, and stored up, the 
methods by which the affections are heartily elicited and 
trained to distribute themselves in accordance with the 
worth of things for moral ends, the discipline by which 
the will is rendered autonomous and placed beyond the 
influence of passion and appetite, and, finally, the con- 
ditions of bodily health, strength, and plasticity. Only 
when such knowledge is attained and applied is it pos- 
sible fully to realize that education which we have called 
human, which places the soul in the triple relation of 
knowledge, love, and will to all that exists. Though 
this great task is still very far from being accomplished, 
the followers of Pestalozzi have already taken consider- 
able steps toward its accomplishment. Chief among 
these are Herbart, Frcebel, Rosmini, and Horace Mann. 

The work of Herbart * may be said to consist in com- 
bining the method of the old education with that of 
Pestalozzi, in recognizing the importance of memory and 
mental construction in the acquisition of knowledge. 
Setting aside Kant's doctrine that the mind is a group 
of moulds — forms of sense, categories of understanding, 

* Johann Friedrich Herbart, born at Oldenburg, 1776; goes to Olden- 
burg Latin school, 1788, and studies Wolf's philosophy ; enters the 
University of Jena, 1794, and becomes acquainted with Schiller and 
Fichte ; deserts Fichte's views, 17%; private tutor in Interlaken, 1797- 
99; in Jena, 1800; in Bremen, 1801; in Gottingen, 1802; takes Kant's 
chair in Konigsberg, 1809; marries Mary Drake, 1811 ; returns to Got- 
tingen, 1833; dies, 1841. See J. F. HerbarVs Padagogische Schriften, 
mit H.'s Biographie herausgegeben von D. Fr. Bartholomai ; aud De 
Garmo, Herbart and the Uerbartia?is, in " The Great Educators." 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 233 

postulates of reason — determining a priori all experi- 
ence, he returned to the Leibnizian notion that the soul 
is a self -defined, substantial monad, and maintained that 
all its " ideas " are so many efforts to protect itself from 
invasion by other monads — in fact, a series of warlike 
attitudes, each of which, more or less, conditions all 
succeeding ones. On this basis he built up his Psy- 
chology, as an indispensable basis for educational theory 
and practice.* According to this, mental action is a 
sort of dynamic chemistry of attitudes or ideas, of which 
one's world, at any given moment, is the net result. 
Ideas are of different strengths and have different af- 
finities, and so can be brought within the domain of 
mathematics. The soul is conceived as originally a mere 
undetermined substance. Invaded from without, it as- 
sumes an attitude, or idea, which persists. Invaded 
again in the same way, it emphasizes this attitude; in- 
vaded differently, it assumes an attitude compounded 
of the first, and of the new, reactions. Thus it proceeds, 
assuming more and more complicated attitudes, whose 
elements enter into the most various relations to each 
other. The attitude which it assumes to each fresh in- 
vasion will be determined by the complex of attitudes 
previously assumed. This assimilation of new ideas by 
means of ideas already assimilated Herbart calls " ap- 
perception." The aim of the teacher should be to make 
these ideas, or attitudes, form an harmonious whole, so 
that each new invasion, or experience, may find an ap- 
propriate place in it. The moral character of the soul 
(and the end of all education is moral character) will 

* Indeed he may be called the father of modern experimental Psychol- 
ogy, Fechner, Wundt, etc., being his disciples. 



234 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

depend upon the nature of this whole and the hierarchic 
relation in which its parts stand to each other. When 
each part claims its proper degree of " interest " and 
attention, the character will be perfect. 

It is easy to show serious defects in Herbart's psy- 
chology. His notion of a soul-substance is a pure piece 
of Greek mythology, having, when properly investigated, 
no meaning, but leading, when unwarily accepted, to 
agnosticism and fatalism. His chemistry of ideas, in 
which, apparently, the soul plays no determining part, 
is as purely mythical as the battles of the Centaurs and 
Lapithae, and likewise leads to fatalism, which, indeed, 
he frankly professed. His insistence that ideas precede 
feelings in the mind, and that the latter are relations 
between the former, is a complete inversion of the truth, 
which is, that ideas are distinctions between feelings or 
groups of feelings. The lower orders of being have 
feeling without ideas. And so on. The fact is, Her- 
bart's psychology is antiquated, fragmentary, and fanci- 
ful, and the same is true of all his work. His mind 
lacked both depth and system. But, for all that, he did 
excellent work in the cause of education; (1) by recog- 
nizing the need of psychology as a basis for it; (2) by 
insisting, as against Kant, that the entire content of con- 
sciousness is due to experience, and therefore can be 
modified by education; (3) by recognizing that moral 
life is the end of all education; (4) that such life de- 
pends upon the nature of the world organized in the 
mind and soul, and can, therefore, be furthered by edu- 
cation. Herbart's followers have done much to correct 
his errors, to rid his system of its mechanical and fatal- 
istic elements, and to bring into relief its merits, so 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 235 

that it occupies at the present day a very distinguished 
place in the educational world. 

The man who did most to carry on the work begun 
by Pestalozzi, was Frcebel, the parent of the "Kinder- 
garten." * Whereas Herbart philosophized about edu- 
cation, and lectured in universities, Froebel devoted him- 
self to teaching, and finally, to the earliest stages of it. 
But there were more fundamental differences than this. 
While Herbart's world was pluralistic, consisting of 
mutually invading and resisting monads, related to each 
other in a mechanical way, Frcebel's world was monistic, 
guided by a single universally interfused power. His 
marked tendency to mysticism and pantheism, which 
hence resulted, can be accounted for by the circum- 
stances of his early life; but it belongs to an old order 



* Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel, born at Oberweissbach in Thur- 
ingen, 1782 ; loses his mother, 1783, and is left almost without education 
till 1792, when he goes to school at Stadt-Ilm ; apprenticed to a forester, 
1797 ; enters University of Jena, 1799, but is a failure ; studies farming 
at Hildburghausen, 1801 ; loses his father, 1802 ; holds various offices con- 
nected with forestry, 1802-5 ; becomes a teacher at Frankfort, and de- 
votes attention to the art of teaching; visits Pestalozzi at Yverdun, 
1805; private tutor in Rousselian fashion, 1807; takes his pupils to 
Yverdun, 1808, and remains two years; studies the plays of boys; re- 
turns to Frankfort, 1810; attends University of Gottingen, 1811-12; 
Berlin, 1813 ; a soldier, 1813-14 ; in Royal Museum at Berlin, 1814-16 ; 
goes to Griesheim and opens the " Universal German Educational Insti- 
tute " in a cottage ; moves with institute to Keilhau, 1817 ; marries 
Henrietta Wilhelmine Hoffmeister, a pupil of Schleiermacher and Fichte, 
1818; publishes his "Education of Man," 1826 ; his institute attacked 
and ruined, 1829 ; tries to work in Switzerland, 1829-32 ; returns to 
Keilhau, 1832 ; moves to Burgdorf, 1835, and is appointed director of 
the orphanage ; reaches the notion of the kindergarten, and conceives 
a plan for the education of mothers ; moves to Berlin, 1836 ; starts his 
"Institution for the Nurture of Little Children," at Blankenburg, 1837 ; 
loses his wife, 1839 ; invents the name "Kindergarten," 1840; publishes 
his Mutter-und Kose-Lieder, 1843 ; leaves Blankenburg, and lectures in 
various parts of Germany, 1S44^49 ; settles at Liebenstein and opens an 
institute, 1849; moves to Marienthal, 1850 ; marries Luise Levin, 1851 ; 
kindergartens forbidden, as socialistic, in Prussia, and Frcebel taxed 
with atheism, 1851 ; dies, 1852. See Bowen, Frcebel and Education 
through Self-Activity ; Miss Shirreff, Life of Froebel. 



236 THE HISTOEY OF EDUCATION 

of thought, and involves assumptions not justified upon 
his own principles. Pantheism, if fully thought out, 
proves fatal to all possibility of moral life, while mys- 
ticism is almost sure to lead to a breathless, wide-eyed 
pietism. In Frcebel's own practice they did compara- 
tively little harm; but, in those of his weaker followers, 
they have led to manifold aberrations — sentimental re- 
ligiosity, vain talk about " symbolism," and the like — 
which have often, like rank weeds, overgrown his system. 
But, in spite of this drawback, which was merely a 
tribute to the unconquered past, Frcebel is the prince 
of educators. He was the first to see, and to state clearly, 
that education is conscious evolution, and to draw the 
practical conclusions from this insight. The very term 
" Kindergarten " tells the story. It means a garden in 
which the plants are children, who, in order that they 
may attain the greatest perfection, are to receive the 
proper care and nourishment at the proper time. He 
saw distinctly that all upward evolution is due to con- 
tinuous self-activity, under the proper stimuli, or with 
reference to the proper objects, and that such activity, 
evoked in an orderly way, and continually progressing, 
is true blessedness.* He insists, therefore, that the child 
shall be self-active in the acquisition, and assimilation, 
as well as in the expression, of knowledge; moreover, 
that knowledge which does not go through all these 
three processes is vain and fruitless. This view, it need 

* Aristotle (Eth. Nicorn,. Bks. L, X.) maintained that man's happiness 
and perfection consisted in the actualization or energy (eVpyeia) of his 
highest and distinctive faculty, viz., reason, a view which was largely 
responsible for the medieval exaltation of contemplation, as against 
practice. Froebel holds that they consist in the progressive and harmo- 
nious actualization of all man's faculties, in the evolution of the entire 
human being. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 237 

not be said, is diametrically opposed to the mediaeval 
one, which held that human nature, being corrupt, 
needed to be suppressed and replaced. Frcebelism is 
humanism, pure and simple. But, though Frcebel in- 
sisted that education is the development of human nat- 
ure, he was very far from holding, as some of his fol- 
lowers seem inclined to do, that it is the unregulated 
manifestation of human " spontaneities." This would 
be mere unculture. No one believed more completely 
in regulation and discipline than Frcebel; only he main- 
tained that they should be applied with full understand- 
ing of the present condition and future ideals of their 
subjects, which means that they should be applied gen- 
tly and rationally. He saw, what few people see, that, 
though children are born with what are called evil 
tendencies, these may be starved into inaction, while 
good tendencies,* though weak, may be nourished into 
complete energy, by having their proper " good " sup- 
plied to them in the proper degree and at the proper 
time.f Having observed that the tendencies of children 
manifest themselves most fully in play, he concluded 
that there they can be most effectively dealt with. 
Hence the kindergarten, which is a scheme for regu- 
lating play in such a way that, without ceasing to be 
play, it shall be made a means for developing, in an 
ordered way, the whole nature of the child. 

This is not the place to enter into the details of the 
kindergarten, with which Frcebel's name and fame are 

*I believe no tendency ever shows itself until it has received some 
sort of satisfaction. 

+ It is strange that Frcebel should have maintained, in spite of this, 
that children are naturally good. This is a mere shred of Rousselian 
sentimentality, of a piece with his mysticism. Nothing is naturally 
either good or bad. Both are moral and acquired attributes. 



238 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

chiefly associated; but two facts must be emphasized: 
(1) that Frcebel demands for the human being an edu- 
cation in and through its entire environment, that is, 
the universe, past, present, and future; (2) that his sys- 
tem is applicable, not only to small children, but to 
human beings at all stages of education. If Frcebel 
confined his chief attention to the former, it was be- 
cause he wished to lay his foundation secure before pro- 
ceeding with his superstructure. The latter he had to 
leave to other hands, which have not yet, to any large 
extent, appeared. 

The chief weakness in Frcebel's system has already 
been pointed out. There are a few minor ones, which 
may be here touched upon. (1) The system is adapted 
specially to German children and German ideals, and 
requires considerable modification before it can be 
adopted, with success, by other peoples. This fact has 
not been sufficiently regarded by English and Ameri- 
can teachers. (2) It wastes time in making children 
learn consciously what they would soon learn uncon- 
sciously and without effort.* We should never forget 
that unconscious learning is the best. (3) It is apt, in 
the hands of inferior teachers, to leave children with 
the notion that all education must be play, and there- 
fore delightful. (4) It is too much inclined to confine 
the attention of children to the things about them, and 
thereby to stunt the imagination. The unfamiliar, and 
even the unknown, dimly conceived or held only by a 
word, is perhaps the most interesting part of a child's 
world, and it is certainly the one that is most useful for 

* For example, in making them trace back the bread they eat, through 
various processes, to seed-corn. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTUEY 239 

the cultivation of the imagination. Nature-study is ad- 
mirable; but it ought to be supplemented by the study 
of the products of the creative imagination. Men de- 
voted to natural science are wont to be defective in 
imagination, and to lose their taste for poetry. Even 
Darwin had to complain of this in his own case. Stories 
relating to things they have never seen are of high in- 
terest and value to children. It is often well to make 
them commit to memory poems, and later to read books, 
which they do not at the time fully understand. What 
child fully understands the old ballads, or the novels of 
Sir Walter Scott? And yet what treasures they are! 
What is more delightful and educative than Alice in Won- 
derland? And yet who, young or old, understands it? 
Frcebel would doubtless have learnt much from it. (5) 
The Mutter-und Kose-Lieder are mostly mere doggerel, 
apt to destroy, rather than cultivate, the child's sense 
of rhythm, poetic diction, and poetry, and they are not 
improved by translation. Many of them, moreover, are 
too childish for American children. 

But these are mere spots in the sun, and the fact re- 
mains that all future education must be built upon the 
foundation laid by Frcebel. 

The pedagogical writings of the Roman Catholic 
Eosmini * in many ways resemble those of Herbart and 

* Antonio Rosmini-Serbati, born at Rovereto in the Tyrol, 1797 ; 
studies at Padua, 1817-21 ; loses his father and inherits a fortune, 1820 ; 
ordained priest and visits Rome, 1821 ; studies at home, 1820-26 ; founds 
an institution for the Daughters of Charity, 1825; at Milan, 1826-28; 
sets out to found a religious order at Domodossola, i828 ; in Rome, 1828- 
30; at Domodossola, 1830-34; priest at Rovereto, 1834-37; retires to 
Stresa, 1837 ; his institute (Brothers of Charity) approved by the pope, 
1839; goes as Piedmontese envoy to the pope, 1848; declines the presi- 
dency of the papal ministry, 1848; returns to Stresa, 1849; his works 
examined by the Congregation of the Index, and finally dismissed as 
free from censure, 1851-54; dies, 1855. See TAfe, prefixed to my trans- 
lation of his Philosophical System, London, 1882. 



240 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Froebel, though he seems to have been acquainted with 
neither, and though his thought rests upon principles 
widely different from theirs. Indeed, his work may be 
regarded as a combination of Herbart's theory of apper- 
ception with Frcebel's doctrine of education, as ordered 
evolution.* He is as much interested as either in nature- 
study, and in the moral elevation of man; but his dis- 
tinctive merit is his insistence that there is a definite 
order in apperception, and that, corresponding to each 
successive grade of apperceptive " intellection," there is 
a grade of volition. With admirable cogency he shows 
that the natural progress of the mind is from ideas of 
large denotation to ideas of large connotation, e.g., from 
plant, through flowering plant, rose, to damask rose. If 
a child is told that a certain plant is a damask rose, he 
is apt to call every plant by the same name, and has to 
correct himself at every onward step; whereas, if he 
is told that the same object is a plant, every step in his 
future progress will be correct; for all flowering plants, 
roses, and damask roses are plants; all roses and damask 
roses are flowering plants, and all damask roses are 
roses. Such is the natural order of apperception; such 
is the way to cultivate the observation of nature and to 
learn the relations between its different parts. " A 
thought is what serves as matter, or supplies the matter, 

*His chief pedagogical work, Del Principio Supremo della Metodica 
e di alcune sue Applicasioui in Servlgio dell ' Umana Educazione, re- 
mained a fragment, not extending beyond the fifth year of the child's 
life; nevertheless it contains his whole theory. It was written in 1839- 
40, but was not published till 1857, two years after his death. It 
rested upon a large amount of careful child-study. It has been trans- 
lated by Mrs. Maria Gray (Boston, D. C. Heath & Co.). There is a 
Becond volume containing shorter essays, chief among which are (1) On 
Christian Education, (2) Essay on the Unity of Education, (3) On Lib- 
erty of Teaching. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 241 

for another thought. Such is the law. It is evident that 
if one thought serves as matter, or supplies the matter, 
for another thought, this second thought cannot pos- 
sibly arise until after the first has arisen and supplied 
the matter which it requires. Now, this shows the 
natural and necessary order of all human thoughts. 

" All the thoughts that ever entered, or can enter, the 
mind of man are distributed and classified into so many 
different orders according to this law. Those orders are: 

" First, thoughts that do not derive their matter from 
previous thoughts.* 

" Second, thoughts that derive their matter from 
thoughts of the first order, and from no others. 

" Third, thoughts that derive their matter from 
thoughts of the second order (and so on). . . . 

" This series of orders is endless; hence the infinite 
development to which the human intelligence is or- 
dained." ...(§§ 75, 76.) 

Having laid down the law of apperception, Kosmini 
proceeds to describe, and account for, the different or- 
ders of " intellection," and the volitions corresponding 
to them. He finds that they may be reduced to four, as 
set forth in the table on the next page. 

"With regard to this table three things may be noted 
— (1) that it might be continued indefinitely; (2) that 
Rosmini lays the same stress upon interest that Herbart 
does, (3) that moral choice and life begin only with the 
fourth order of intellections. With respect to the last 
Rosmini says: "Mere appreciative volition would not 
suffice to justify us in declaring that a child had arrived 

* Of course, the matter of the earliest thoughts consists of undiffer- 
entiated feeling. The function of thought is differentiation. 

16 



242 



THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



I. Order. 

II. Order. 

III. Order. 

IV. Order. 



Act of the Intellect. 



Perception of the subsist- 
ent. 

Abstraction of the interest- 
ing sensible qualities. 



Judgment regarding the 
qualities of objects, or 
synthesis, whereby it is af- 
firmed that a given inter- 
esting quality is in a given 
subject. 

Comparison of two objects 
already judged, and the 
pronouncing of a third 
judgment, which prefers 
the one to the other — ap- 
preciation. 



Corresponding Act of the 
Will. 



Affectional volition, directed 
upon the subsistent thing 
as a whole. 

Affectional volition, directed 
upon the sensible quality 
alone, good or bad (ab- 
stracted, that is sundered 
from the other indifferent 
qualities of the thing). 

Appreciative volition, di- 
rected upon the object, in 
so far as the mind recog- 
nizes in it the interesting 
quality, and so appreciates 
it. 

Appreciative volition, pref- 
erence, choice between two 
objects (§ 333). 



at the use of its freedom. ... If the appreciation 
and the consequent choice relate to things belonging to 
the material order, or even to merely intellectual things, 
there may be choice, and yet no freedom. This begins 
to manifest itself, the first time that a man begins to 
compare the moral order with the other, inferior orders; 
the first time he has to choose between the performance 
of his own duty and his own pleasure, or the satisfaction 
of his accidental instinct. 

" But this first time occurs just at the fourth order 
of intellections. The collision between alluring things 
and his duty takes place as soon as he knows a positive 
will that opposes his natural inclinations. Now this 
will is known to him at the fourth order." (§ 334.) 

It is impossible here to enter into the details of Ros- 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 243 

mini's method; "but perhaps enough has been said to 
show that it contributes an important addition to the 
work of Herbart and Frcebel.* His Pedagogy rests upon 
an entire philosophic system of marvellous extent and 
subtlety, a system which seeks, by combining Scholas- 
ticism with modern thought, to furnish a rational basis 
for catholic theology. Though this fact necessarily 
hampers him, he must yet count as one of the ablest 
thinkers of the century, perhaps the very ablest. He 
was well acquainted with modern thought, and strove 
to be just to it. f His life was that of a saint. 

Herbart, Frcebel, Eosmini — by these three men the 
foundations of modern education for rational liberty 
were securely laid. Each had his defects; each paid his 
tribute to an unvanquished past; but the defects are 
such as time and experience are certain to remove, as 
the tribute to the past ceases to be paid. We can now 
clearly see, and all true educators do see, that education 
is conscious evolution of the entire human being through 
ever closer relations, intellectual, afTectional and ethical, 
to the entire universe, human and subhuman. The only 
question that remains is: How can these relations be 
most readily and most securely established? Even this 
question is already partly answered, and will be more 
fully answered in the future. 

If space permitted, it would be interesting to follow 
the spread of the new education in different countries, 

*It borrows much from the Protestant Mme. Necker de Saussure 
(1765-1841), who again owes much to Rousseau and Pestalozzi. Her 
work, V Education Progressive, on Etude du Cours de la Nature Hu- 
maine (1836-38, 3 vols. ), is one of the sanest works on education ever 
written, well deserving more attention than can here be given it. 

t As a consequence, forty of his tenets were recently condemned by 
the Church, as savoring of heresy. 



2 



244 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and to see how it has everywhere affected the individual 
and social life; but we must confine ourselves to its 
progress in the United States, in which perhaps it has 
celebrated its noblest triumphs. For this the credit is 
due, in very large measure, to Horace Mann. 

The first Europeans who came to settle in North 
America were people of considerable cultivation, peo- 
ple who had reaped the fruits of the Reformation and 
the Renaissance. They were pious, and they loved learn- 
ing, especially such as might enable them correctly to 
interpret the Book in which they found the matter and 
guarantee of their faith. This was especially true of 
the colonists of Massachusetts Bay, who very early in 
their history established a system of public schools,* of 
three grades — primary, secondary and collegiate. Their 
example was followed, in some degree, by the other col- 
onies, and for a time all went well. But in proportion 
as the colonists were removed in feeling from the cult- 
ured social medium of the old country, and turned their 
attention to their own immediate needs, mostly of a 
material sort, interest in culture and education gradually 
died out. A most competent authority has said that, 
for a hundred and fifty years, nothing deserving the 
name of literature was produced in America. From 
about 1680, the schools, being unprovided with state 
funds, and left to the tender mercies of towns or, later, 
of school-districts, deteriorated more and more, until at 
last, before the Revolution, many members of good 
families could hardly write their own names. The Revo- 

* The Boston Latin School was founded. 1635 ; Harvard College, 1636 ; 
compulsory primary schools, 1642. In 1647 there were in Massachusetts 
eight Latin (or grammar) schools. "Grammar" and "Latin" were at 
that time synonymous terms, as they are now in Scotland. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 245 

lution brought but little improvement. The people of 
that time had other things than education to think 
about. In the first third of the nineteenth century, 
things went from bad to worse. " Previous to 1826, 
there were one hundred and seventy-two towns in the 
State [of Massachusetts] that were required to main- 
tain schools in which Greek and Latin were taught; the 
legislature of that year removed the obligations from all 
these but seven, and the seven were all maritime towns. 
Nor was Latin much taught in the schools that pro- 
fessed to teach it. The ancient and honorable name 
' grammar school ' now disappeared from the Massachu- 
setts statute book, and the name ' high school ' took 
its place. Verily the State had found the descent to 
Avernus an easy one! The people of Massachusetts 
seemed almost as anxious to get rid of their schools as 
their ancestors had been to get them." * So far did 
this deterioration of the public schools go that, about 
the middle of the eighteenth century, private academies 
began to grow up. As these were attended mainly, if 
not wholly, by the children of well-to-do people, they 
helped to draw between rich and poor a line most fatal 
to democracy. At the same time, they did good work 
and helped to raise the standard of education, especially 
in the colleges. In the southern states wealthy families 
sent their children, for higher education, to Europe. 

It is hard for a dependent colony ever to take an in- 
dependent stand in anything. Hence, it was not till 
after the United States had achieved their independence, 
and settled down to consider what the new nation was 

* Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the 
United States (" Great Educators" series), p. 17. 



246 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to represent, that people turned their attention again 
to public education. At the opening of the nineteenth 
century, education was pretty generally diffused among 
the people of the northern and western states; but it 
was of a low order, seldom going beyond " the three 
R's." Legislatures passed generous enactments in re- 
gard to it; public lands were set apart, in the new states, 
for its maintenance; but there existed no ideal of edu- 
cation; the teachers were mostly poor, and their meth- 
ods crude. Primary education was imparted chiefly in 
" dame's schools," most of which were poor enough. 
The movement in favor of realistic education, due to 
Rousseau and Pestalozzi, had not reached these shores. 
In truth, American intellectual life had not begun: 
America did not understand herself. 

It was toward the end of the first quarter of the nine- 
teenth century that the quickening of intellectual life, 
and interest in culture movements, began. Then a sort 
of spiritual spring, calling every hibernating thing to 
new life, broke over America. Literature began to re- 
vive; art put in a timid, childlike appearance; philos- 
ophy glided in gently and somnambulistically, in the 
night-gown of Neo-Platonism or Transcendentalism; 
Utopian theories of Arcadian social orders fluttered 
down from a clear sky, like a swarm of blue butterflies; 
and, finally, education, which was to transform all these, 
in view of new conditions and new ideals, showed its 
earnest face. 

From early in the century, advocates of popular edu- 
cation had not been wanting;* but the first man who 
fully understood the needs of the nation, and undertook 

*On Horace Mann's predecessors, see Hinsdale, tit «wp., pp. 46-74. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTUEY 247 

to meet them in large, practical ways, was Horace 
Mann,* to whom American culture owes more than to 
any other person. He was exactly the influence needed 
by the nation in her hour of spiritual awakening. 

Unlike Herbart, Frcebel, and Eosmini, who were edu- 
cational philosophers, Horace Mann was distinctly a 
practical man. What educational theories he had were 
chiefly drawn from George Combe's Constitution of Man, 
in which phrenology plays a large part. He was more 
like Pestalozzi, with all Pestalozzi's human sympathy, 
democratic interest, and moral enthusiasm, but with a 
practical sense and a talent for organizing which were 
lacking in the older man. He saw what the people 
needed, if they were to be raised out of ignorance, 
degradation, and misery, and remain faithful to the 
democratic ideas of the Puritans. First of all, the sys- 
tem of public education, initiated by the Puritans, but 
now fallen into decay, must be restored, and the un- 
democratic tendencies of private academies neutralized. 
But the restored system must be so modified as to meet 
the new conditions that had arisen in the course of two 
hundred years. To these tasks he set himself with all 
the energy and enthusiasm of his nature. 

His appointment to the secretaryship of the Massa- 
chusetts Board of Education, an office which he held 
for twelve years, gave him just the opportunity he 
needed and desired to bring the state of education, with 

* Born at Franklin, Massachusetts, 1790 ; repelled by Calvinism 
1806; attends Brown University. 1816-19; tutor at Brown, 1819-21 
studies law at Lichfield. Connecticut, 1821-23; practises law, 1823-27 
State representative in Massachusetts, 1827-33 ; senator, 1833-37 ; secre- 
tary of the newly appointed Board of Education. 1837-48: member of 
U. S. Congress, 1848-. r >2 ; president of An tioch College, 1853-59; dies, 
August 2, 1859. See Hinsdale, Horace Mann, and Life and Works of 
Horace Mann, by Mrs. Mann. 



248 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

suggestions of reform, before the public. The board it- 
self had no executive power; but it could give informa- 
tion and advice, not only to the legislature, but to all 
the world. The secretary made up his mind that it 
should not be merely ornamental, but in the highest 
degree useful. So he set out to collect facts and statis- 
tics of all sorts, and to consider projects of educational 
reform, and these he embodied in his famous- twelve 
annual Eeports, which must count among educational 
classics. A summary of the contents of these reports 
will show us the range of his activity, and the nature of 
his projects. 

Eeport I. (1837) relates to (1) school-houses,* (2) 
school-committees, (3) popular feeling toward the com- 
mon schools, (4) teachers. In all these he finds much to 
criticise. The school-houses are poor and squalid; the 
committees frequently perform their duty in a perfunc- 
tory way, giving places to inefficient teachers, failing 
to visit the schools, and to see that they are duly at- 
tended. The common schools are becoming schools for 
the poor, while the rich are sending their children to 
private schools. The teachers are poor and poorly paid: 
many of them take to teaching merely as a temporary 
expedient. They give no moral instruction, keep no 
registers, etc. 

Eeport II. (1838) touches on the general "unsound- 
ness and debility " of the schools, but is mostly devoted 
to the subjects of spelling and reading, in which im- 
provements are suggested. 

Eeport III. (1839) deals mainly with the question of 

* These were treated specially in a supplementary report, which soon 
followed the other. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 249 

school libraries, and their value as adjuncts to the 
schools. 

Eeport IV. (1840) is occupied with the evils attend- 
ing the district-school system, the needless multiplica- 
tion of small, poorly taught, and ungraded schools, the 
qualifications of teachers, the attendance of pupils, and 
the relations of the parents to the schools. 

Eeport V. (1841) endeavors to show "the effect of 
education upon the worldly fortune and estates of men." 
It is found to be of great economic value, and therefore 
may justly call for large expenditure. It is not merely 
ornamental. 

Eeport VI. (1842) insists upon the study of Physi- 
ology, and other practical subjects in schools, in prefer- 
ence to subjects having little or no immediate use in 
daily life. 

Eeport VII. (1843) gives an account of the author's 
visit to the schools of Europe — Great Britain, Germany, 
Holland, Belgium, France (Paris) — made in that year. 
He saw much that interested him and, especially in Ger- 
many, much that he thought might be profitably adopted 
at home — normal schools, oral instruction, etc. One 
thing he strongly disliked, the use of the public schools 
for the support of the State-religion. 

Eeport VIII. (1844) deals with recent improvements 
in the public schools, their growing republicanism, the 
increase in the number of female teachers, teachers' in- 
stitutes, the use of the Bible in schools, etc. 

Eeport IX. (1845) deals with the apportionment of 
school funds, the means for doing away with school 
vices, etc., and ends with an account of Pestalozzi's 
method of teaching. 



250 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Keport X. (1846) treats of the history of the Massa- 
chusetts public schools, and shows that the narrow puri- 
tanical, and merely protestant, basis upon which they 
originally stood must be abandoned, and that their scope 
must be widened so as to include all the children of the 
commonwealth, whose property is pledged for their 
moral and civic education. Again, as in Eeport IV., he 
condemns the school-district system. 

Eeport XI. (1847) discusses the value, for social and 
moral character, of a common school education, and 
contains the replies of experienced teachers to a circular 
making inquiries on this subject. 

Eeport XII. (1848), in which Horace Mann takes 
leave of the Board of Education, considers " The Ca- 
pacities of our Present School System to Improve the 
Pecuniary Condition and to Elevate the Intellectual 
and Moral Character of the Commonwealth," and gives 
reasons for the reformatory and critical course pursued 
by the secretary.* 

A glance at this meagre summary will show how com- 
pletely Horace Mann had grasped the problem, not 
merely of civic, but also of human, education, and how 
clearly he understood how it was to be practically solved. 
The following are the points upon which he laid special 
emphasis: 

(1) Education in a democracy should be public and 
extend equally to all classes of the population. The 
public schools ought to be good enough for the best, 
so that there should be no inducement for the rich to 
send their children to private schools, and so separate 
them from those of the poor. Freedom from caste. 

* Abridged from Hinsdale's Horace Mann, pp. 160-80. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 251 

(2) Education should rest upon science, and not upon 
authority. It should bring children into direct contact 
with the facts of nature and culture, and allow them, 
as far as possible, to make their own inductions. The 
method of Pestalozzi is the true one. Horace Mann says 
nothing of Herbart, Frcebel, or Rosmini. 

(3) Education should encourage true religion; but it 
should be free from sectarian bias, and the sects should 
not, as such, be allowed to interfere with it. Freedom 
from supernaturalism.* 

(4) Education should be a preparation for life, do- 
mestic, economic, social, political, and not merely the 
acquisition of curious learning, elegant scholarship, or 
showy accomplishments. Its end should be the attain- 
ment of moral and social personality. 

(5) Education should be imparted with gentleness 
and with due regard to the nature of the child. All 
violence, and all corporal punishment, should, as far 
as possible, be avoided. 

(6) Education should be conducted in well-built, well- 
ventilated school-houses, supplied with good libraries, 
and all apparatus necessary for effective teaching accord- 
ing to the new method. 

(7) Education should be in the hands of thoroughly 
trained and competent teachers, making teaching their 
profession, and to this end there should be established 
Normal Schools for their special training. American 
Normal Schools owe their existence to Horace Mann. 

(8) The schools should be open to girls, as well as 

* Horace Mann had a hard struggle with sectarianism before he was 
able to banish it from the schools ; but he finally succeeded, and, in doing 
so, he wrested education from the hands of Authority, and placed it in 
those of Science. 



252 THE LLISTORY OF EDUCATION 

boys,* and the profession of teacher to women, as well 
as to men. 

(9) Teachers should have frequent opportunities of 
meeting for discussion and mutual encouragement in 
institutes and conventions. 

(10) To make possible all these things, the State 
should spare no expense, but should consider its prop- 
erty a trust for the education of its citizens. 

On some of these points Horace Mann may have laid 
too much stress, and in some he may have been mis- 
taken. His notions of " practical education " may have 
been too narrow; his belief in the value of Normal 
Schools may have been exaggerated. But, taken as a 
whole, his ideas concerning the education required by 
American democracy and by humanity were correct, and 
the methods by which he sought to realize them valid. 
Nothing can be a better proof of this than the fact that 
all the reforms advocated by him have already been, in 
large part at least, realized, with excellent effect. | State 
education of a high order has become all but universal; 
more and more it rests upon science and the Pestalozzian 
method; dogmatic teaching is almost excluded from it; 
its chief aim is to fit for the great relations of life; it 
more and more follows gentle and humane methods; 
school buildings are improved beyond what he would 
have dared to hope; Normal Schools have been estab- 
lished in large numbers, and have supplied the States 
and cities with competent teachers; all the advantages 
of State education are open to both sexes equally; the 

* Not till 1789 were girls admitted to the public schools of Boston, 
and even then not along with the boys. For a specimen of a girls' 
Bchool-mistress of the early part of the century, see the Journey of Airs. 
Anne Knight. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 253 

vast majority of teachers are women; teachers' insti- 
tutes and conventions are almost innumerable; com- 
pared with the sums spent on education by the United 
StatesZ/those spent by other countries almost dwindle 
into insignificance. It may be fairly said that Horace 
Mann is the father of American education. 

But that education is already far beyond him. Kin- 
dergartens, of which he never dreamt, are springing up 
everywhere, and setting the example of the true method 
of education. " Child-study " is becoming a science. 
Schools, colleges, and universities come into existence 
as if by magic. Already the country possesses more in- 
stitutions of higher learning than the whole of Europe. 
The colleges for women are more numerous than col- 
leges for men were at the beginning of the century. 
Nay, all the more enlightened of the latter are opening 
their doors to women.* And so on. 

Thus, there is every reason to look with satisfaction, 
pride, and hope upon the condition and spirit of edu- 
cation in the United States.^ It is democratic; it is 
scientific, rapidly shaking off the fetters of authority 
and dogma; it is free from sectarian bias and confusion; 
above all, it educates for freedom, and not for subordi- 
nation./ It is the highest type, thus far, of human edu- 
cation. Other countries, despite numerous obstacles, 
are gradually imitating it, without, in any marked de- 
gree, contributing to its evolution. Of what it has yet 
to do in the way of improvement, we shall see something 
in the next chapter, f 

* Oberlin was the first to do so ; under Horace Mann, Antioch did so 
from the first, making the course identical for the two sexes, as Oberlin 
had not done. 

t It may perhaps seem strange that I say nothing of Herbert Spencer's 
work on Education ; but the fact is I find nothing original in it that 
seems to me true, while its ethical principles are distinctly objectionable. 



C 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE OUTLOOK 

The first of all blessings is not authority, but liberty. This is 
my fundamental maxim. — Rousseau. 

I think there is something scientific destined to become popular; 
and it is all that pertains to truth. — Rosmini. 

The study of the duties of citizenship ought to be the foundation 
of all other studies. — Turgot. 

The property of this commonwealth is pledged for the education 
of all its youth up to such a point as will save them from poverty 
and vice, and prepare them for the adequate performance of their 
social and civil duties. — Horace Mann. 

The successive holders of this property are trustees bound to the 
faithful execution of their trust by the most sacred obligations, and 
embezzlement and pillage from children and descendants have not 
less of criminality, and have more of meanness, than the same 
offence when perpetrated against contemporaries. — Id. 

I by no means approve of those schools in which a child used to 
spend twenty or thirty years over Donatus or Alexander [of Aphro- 
disias], without learning anything. A new world has dawned in 
which things go differently. My opinion is that we must send boys 
to school one or two hours a day, and have them learn a trade at 
home the rest of the time. It is desirable that these two occupa- 
tions go side by side. At present children certainly spend twice as 
much time playing ball, running the streets, and playing truant. And 
so girls might equally well devote nearly the same time to school, 
without neglecting their home duties ; they waste more time than that 
in over-sleeping, and in dancing more than is proper.* — Luther. 

* Quoted by Compayre, Hist, of Pedagogy, pp. 119 sq. (Eug. Trans.). 
254 



THE OUTLOOK 255 

The democratic system of education gives every man the freest 
opportunity to become in the fullest measure all for which nature 
has fitted him. — Charles W. Dabnet, in the Forum for February, 
1900, p. 664. 

We have now briefly traced the course of education 
from the earliest times to the present day, and seen that 
it is conscious evolution, separated by no clear line of 
demarcation from unconscious evolution, in which the 
whole subhuman world is engaged. We have seen it 
begin in supernaturalism and authority, and, by a slow 
and difficult process, rise to nature and freedom. It has 
grown with the growth of practical intelligence, and 
has in all cases been a preparation for life under exist- 
ing institutions. Where tyranny has prevailed, it has 
educated for tyranny and thraldom; where freedom has 
been won, it has educated for freedom. At first confined 
to a few favored men, chiefly occupied with the super- 
natural, it has gradually extended its blessings to greater 
and greater numbers, until in the United States, it is 
practically universal.* 

Here much has been done that deserves the highest 
commendation*; but much yet remains to be done, and 
perhaps we cannot more fitly close this book than by 
attempting to point out the improvements that must be 
made, before education can fully meet the needs of a 
great democracy that means to last and to retain its own 
and others' respect. These improvements relate to (1) 
the being to be educated, (2) the aim of education, (3) 
its matter, (4) its method, (5) its extent, (6) its teachers. 

*It is so in several other countries, Germany, Holland, Scotland, etc.; 
but we must confine ourselves to the United States. England, strange to 
say, long remained sadly behind in the matter of education. Her pnblic- 
echool syBtem dates from 1870. It is still struggling against sectarianism. 



206 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

(1) " Child-study " has already made considerable ad- 
vance; but it has, so far, confined itself to inquiring 
into the faculties of the child and the best means of 
developing them. There is still much to do even in 
these directions; but there is everything to do with 
reference to the more fundamental questions: What is 
the child? Is it a mere cluster of ephemeral feelings 
and desires which will perish with the dissolution of the 
body, or is it an eternal being, with an infinite task, a 
being to which the body is a mere temporary instrument, 
a special cluster of phenomena? Those who still cling 
to the old supernaturalism and authority, usually accept 
the latter view; those who do not, for the most part 
adopt the former, or quietly ignore the question alto- 
gether. Both parties assume that it is insoluble by sci- 
ence, and, hence, those who insist upon an answer are 
referred to authority, which is thus enabled to retain 
its hold upon many. 

Now, it is surely little short of irrational to spend 
time and energy in educating a being whose nature and 
destiny we do not know. Being ignorant of these, how 
can we know that all our efforts are not vain, or even 
hurtful? Many a pious saint, even St. Augustine, has 
believed that " the uneducated carry the kingdom of 
heaven," * and, indeed, this was the prevailing view 
throughout the Middle Age. The answer usually is: 
The fact, in any case, is so: we do not, and cannot, know 
man's nature and destiny, and must, therefore, be con- 
tent " to guess and opine," f and then do the best we 
can. But this is surely a most disheartening attitude. 

* See p. 126, and cf. the words of Jesus, Matthew XI. 25. 
t " Wir konnen nur rathen und meinea." — Schiller. 



THE OUTLOOK 257 

Fortunately, it is not a necessary one, and it is only our 
servile dependence upon authority and our mental sloth 
that make us content with it. A careful study of the 
human spirit and its activities can leave no doubt that 
these are eternal in their very nature, superior to time, 
space, and causation, and, therefore, free. At all events, 
the subject is one that calls for the profoundest study 
on the part of educators. Until they reach clearness 
with regard to it, they can never be sure that they are 
doing anything right.* 

(2) The aim of education is, as we have seen, world- 
building, the construction, in the child's consciousness, 
of such a world as shall furnish him with motives to 
live an enlightened, kindly, helpful, and noble social 
life,f a life not stagnant, but ever advancing. Now, 
this aim is at present far from being attained. The 
worlds which our education, thus far, has constructed 
in children's souls are, in very large degree, fragmentary, 
fanciful, and distorted, made up of pieces of science, 
interspersed with remnants of superstition, and gaudy 
contributions from fancy. Little attempt has been made 
to realize in them the unitary world of evolution, re- 
vealed by science and interpreted by philosophy. And 
yet that is the supreme task of education. Only when 
it is accomplished can men live a rational, open-eyed 

* If we wish to see what life would become, even among cultivated 
men, when the belief in immortality was dismissed, we may read the 
Quatrains (RubcCiyyat) of Omar Khayyam, now so much admired by 
thoughtless people. Of. I. Corinth. XV. 32; Goethe, Faust, Pt. I., the 
Wager-scene; Tennyson, hi Memoriam, XXXV. 

t It is needless to say that the world which furnishes a man's motives 
is the world which he has built up in his own soul. If it is mean, or 
foul, or fragmentary, or distorted, so will his life be. Compare Hamlet's 
world (Act II., Scene 1) with Faust's (Pt. II., Act I., opening), and see 
the respective results. 

17 



258 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

life, with lofty aims, and confidence in the possibility 
of reaching them. The first condition of all truly moral, 
reason-guided life, is a true world-view (Weltanschau- 
ung); for reason is nothing but the order of the world, 
and moral life is a life in accordance with that order. 
Nature-study, as against text-study, is the educational 
watchword of the day, and it is well; but nature must 
be made to include culture,* and the whole regarded 
as one, coherent universe-process of interacting spirits 
advancing to ever higher attainments. The imparting 
of the whole is the task of the educator. 

(3) The matter of education is the entire universe, 
as knowable, lovable, modifiable. To master this mat- 
ter, in all its details, even if it were within our reach, 
is beyond the power of any one mind. We cannot, 
therefore, complain, if education makes no attempt to 
impart it. But the general scheme of evolution, and 
of the relations of its different phases and agents to it 
and to each other, is capable of being grasped, and 
should be imparted by education. It is not necessary 
that every one should know all the details of astronomy, 
mineralogy, chemistry, biology, or sociology; but every 
one should know the fundamental principles and spheres 
of these, and of all other sciences, as well as their re- 
lations to each other in the evolutionary process. He 
should, moreover, know how to interpret the whole in 
terms of experience, and thus to escape the pitfalls of 
agnosticism and dogmatism. Now, education at pres- 
ent is very far from having realized this ideal. It seems 
to make no attempt to impart a total view of the world, 
in its three aspects, as the condition of rational life. In 

* See my Rousseau, pp. 8, 9. 



THE OUTLOOK 259 

all respects its work is fragmentary. It imparts no 
connected knowledge of the universe; it does not seek 
to arrange things and processes in the order of their 
desirability, that is, of their value for spiritual ends; it 
does not show by what means the will can gradually 
modify the world, in order to make it more subservient 
to the purposes of spirit. Thus, children are not taught 
to identify themselves, in any way, with the great world, 
and so they miss the wonderful inspiration that comes 
from such identification. The world remains to them 
a mass of particulars, whose interconnection and co- 
operation they do not see, and so they stand before the 
great all-embracing drama of evolution without com- 
prehending it, or recognizing their own place in it. Is 
it any wonder that the world is uninteresting, and life 
undramatic, narrow, and dreary, to so many people? 

There is, at the present day, a great deal of popular 
talk about making education " practical," which in most 
cases means that it should be mostly confined to such 
instruction as shall enable people to make a competent 
living. But surely, "life is more than food, and the 
body than raiment." What are the necessities, or even 
the material luxuries, of life, if life itself be narrow, 
with no outlook upon the great drama of existence, no 
interest in the great movements of history? The effort 
to elevate the so-called lower classes, by trying, through 
socialism, paternal legislation, and similar questionable 
means, to secure their material comfort, implies a com- 
plete misunderstanding of human nature. Give peo- 
ple, first, large, comprehensive views of life, with the 
inspiration that comes from them, and material com- 
forts will take care of themselves. One intelligent 



260 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

glimpse of the drama of life will quench all desire for 
the pleasures of the dive and the prize-ring. In our 
endeavor to feed men's bodies, we starve their souls, and 
make them hanker after the husks that the swine eat. 
The most truly practical education is that which im- 
parts the most numerous and the strongest motives to 
noble action, which creates the most splendid world of 
thought, love, and beneficence in the human soul. Men 
are weak, sinful, and poor because they lack motives 
to be otherwise. Let education give them these motives, 
and weakness, sin, and poverty will vanish from the 
earth. 

(4) Though very much has been done in the last 
half century to improve the methods of education, and 
though, thanks to Herbart, Frcebel, and Eosmini, the 
true method has been discovered, yet much of our edu- 
cation still follows the old methods, or no method at 
all. Indeed, the fundamental question with regard to 
method is rarely asked, much less answered. That ques- 
tion is: How, and in what order, shall the activities of 
the human being be evoked, so that it may differentiate 
itself into a rich, harmonious world, and thus rise to a 
large, moral life? The kindergarten does its best to 
give a practical answer; but even here, as we have seen, 
there is much to be desired;* whereas the higher schools, 
for the most part, ignore the question altogether, and 
go on, in their old fragmentary way, without any thought 
of the world that will result from their work: nay, most 
of them are still weighted with mediaeval methods and 

* See G. Stanley Hall, Some Defects of the Kindergarten in America^ 
in the Forum, January, 1900, pp. 559 sqq. 



THE OUTLOOK 261 

ideals,* or make it their chief aim to fit for professional 
life. Far too little attention is paid to Kosmini's grades 
of " intellection," and their correlation with acts of vo- 
lition. Though there is much talk of the " correlation 
of studies," it is rarely carried on in view of the end of 
all study, and hence reaches no definite conclusion. The 
truth is, even the kindergarten requires considerable 
modification, in order to suit it to American conditions; f 
and, when it is so modified, its methods, with due 
adaptation, must be carried forward into all grades of 
education, imparting unity of plan and purpose to the 
whole. A clear distinction must be drawn between 
culture, on the one hand, and erudition and professional 
training, on the other. The first ought to be shared by 
all; the last two are necessarily confined to individuals 
and classes. And not only ought one scheme, with one 
definite purpose, to extend from the kindergarten to 
the university, but all the kindergartens, universities 
and other institutions of learning in the nation should 
freely unite into one great hierarchic agency for the 
culture of citizens fit for a democracy. The seat of the 
national government ought to be the central seat of 
learning; the Bureau of Education, while exercising no 
authority, should be the most influential department of 
the national government. Indeed, it ought to be erected 
into a separate Department. Even from a national point 

*This is especially true of universities, many of which have not es- 
caped from sectarianism even. 

T One crying need is a collection of kindergarten poems — real poems 
like "The Mountain and the Squirrel," "Castles in the Air," "Wee 
Willie Winkie," etc., and not pieces of doggerel, like most of the Mut- 
ter-und Kosc-Lieder ; another is a collection of children's stories, such 
as Andersen coidd write at his best, ' 4 How to make Soup of a Sausage- 
pin," etc., and quite unlike those that figure so largely in our children's 
periodicals and kindergarten literature. 



262 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of view, Education is surely as important as Agriculture, 
which already has a department and a minister to itself.* 
The culture of men is surely as important as the culture 
of plants and animals. The latter are means; the for- 
mer are ends. 

(5) How far should education extend? This ques- 
tion has a double meaning. It may mean: To what 
depth should it go? or What classes of the population 
should it include? And, granting that it should include 
all classes, we may take it to mean: How deep should 
education go in each of the various classes of the popu- 
lation? It is in the last sense that we shall here con- 
sider it, or rather one aspect of it. 

As long as men have different endowments and tastes, 
there will be different grades of education for different 
classes. Moreover, as long as the distinction between 
rich and poor exists, the children of the former will find 
it easier to obtain a high order of education than those 
of the latter. The former will stop short at the gram- 
mar or high school, while the latter will go on to the 
college or university. Thus, to a large extent, distinc- 
tion of culture will coincide with difference in wealth, 
and this distinction will be emphasized, if, as is but too 
often the case, the rich, untrue to the principles of 
democracy, send their children to expensive, and there- 
fore exclusive, private schools, while the poor have to 
be content with the public ones. Now, while the last 

* It is an encouraging sign that Washington's dream of a great na- 
tional university, for the behoof of which he even left a legacy, seems, 
after the lapse of a century, likely to be realized. See an admirable 
article, by the President of the University of Tennessee, in the Forum 
for February, 1900, on "Washington's University." It is to be hoped 
that this institution will set the tone, and give unity, to all the institu- 
tions of learning in the nation. 



THE OUTLOOK 263 

fact is lamentable, it is impossible to alter the general 
condition. High education cannot be forced upon peo- 
ple who do not desire it, and the poor cannot have all 
the advantages of the rich. But in this matter the na- 
tion, as represented by the states, has a duty, which calls 
upon it to educate all its citizens to such a degree that 
none of them shall become dependent paupers or dis- 
contented incapables, always a menace to society, and 
that all shall fully understand their duties and privi- 
leges as citizens, and be prepared to claim the latter 
while performing the former. Now, it is quite obvious 
that the states have not done their duty in this respect. 
There still exists, almost everywhere, a large amount 
of incapacity, poverty, and discontent, with all the forms 
of degradation and danger that follow from these; while 
large numbers of the population, knowing neither their 
duties nor their privileges, as citizens, become an easy 
prey to selfish politicians, who counsel them against 
their own best interests, and whom they furnish with 
power, most dangerous to society and to the nation. If 
the United States is to remain a democracy otherwise than 
in name, this state of things must cease, and nothing 
can make it cease but the education of the masses. This 
education must take two forms, (1) training with a view 
to earning a livelihood, and avoiding poverty, with all 
its evils, and (2) civic culture such as shall enable its 
recipients to do their duty as citizens, and not be mere 
" dumb, driven cattle " in the shambles of self-appointed 
owners. 

The truth is, there is a great gap, ever threatening to 
become a devouring abyss, in our educational system. 
Nay, it may even be said that the very education which 



264 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

is most needed is not given. We educate only people 
of leisure — children in our schools, young men and 
women, knowing little more of life than children do, 
in our colleges and universities. The great body of the 
people, who have to " go to work " early, and who, as 
becoming early acquainted with " life's prime needs and 
agonies," are by far the most susceptible of true educa- 
tion,* are left out in the cold, condemned, for the most 
part, to toil in a narrow, sordid world, without outlook, 
and to be the tools of unscrupulous exploiters. For the 
sake of these, nay, for the sake of the entire people, we 
must extend the blessings of education to them. Our 
scheme of public education will never be complete, will 
never even do its best work, until it supplements its 
present institutions by a whole system of evening train- 
ing-schools and colleges for the breadwinners, the for- 
mer to impart such skill as shall enable them to give 
to society, by a reasonable amount of labor, an equiva- 
lent for a decent livelihood, the latter to open up for 
them the treasures of the great world of nature and 
culture, and enable them worthily to perform their part 
as members of family, society, and state. 

At first sight, it will, no doubt, seem extravagant to 
suggest that our different states should add to their al- 
ready expensive system of public schools another system 
perhaps equally expensive; but a little reflection will 
dispel this impression. In the first place, education 
is never expensive: it is worth far more than is ever 
paid for it, as Horace Mann showed long ago. Every 

* No one who has ever taught a class of intelligent breadwinners will 
return willingly to academic teaching. It would be well if all college 
students were engaged in the practical duties of life. 



THE OUTLOOK 265 

educated citizen is a treasure to a nation, far more valu- 
able than a heap of gold or diamonds. Education is 
strength; ignorance is weakness. The United States 
owes its high place among the nations to-day to the 
education of its people. In the second place, education 
is the only thing that can do away with those internal 
evils that disturb the peace, and threaten the existence, 
of the nation — labor troubles, saloon politics, haunts of 
vice, slum-life and the like. These things exist because 
a large body of our people, from want of education to 
open up to them the world of great movements, and 
noble interests and enjoyments, are condemned to nar- 
row, sordid lives, and petty or vicious interests. We 
disinherit them of the spiritual treasures of humanity; 
we condemn them to vulgarity, meanness, squalor, and 
discontent, and then we wonder why they are vulgar, 
mean, squalid, discontented and — rebellious. We make 
all the nobler delights of cultured life impossible for 
them, and then we wonder why they take to vulgar de- 
lights. We leave them ignorant of the true principles 
of social and economic life, and then we wonder that 
they are led astray by social and economic charlatans. 
We do not teach them the value of the vote, and then 
we are disgusted to find them selling it for a glass of 
whiskey. We do not cultivate them into moral inde- 
pendence, and then we condemn them because they are 
the slaves of party politicians. We leave them without 
high motives, and then despise them because they are 
guided by low ones. In our impotent folly, we try to 
offset the gaudy saloon, with its cheap exhilarations, by- 
the tame cafe, the silent reading-room, or the chaperoned 
recreation-room, and we wonder why these arouse so 



266 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

little interest — just as if we could outshine the glare of 
a conflagration by lighting a few tallow candles! No 
interest can be dimmed except by the introduction of 
keener ones. If we would quench interest in the saloon, 
the pool-room, the dance-hall, the dive, the low theatre, 
we must offset them by something arousing a warmer 
and more enduring interest. Their true rivals are the 
manual-training school, the polytechnic institute, the 
lecture-room, the class-room, the college, the art-gallery, 
the classic theatre and concert-hall. Until we have of- 
fered the people the attractions of high things, we have 
no right to complain that they are attracted by low 
things. 

But it is not merely for those workers who are at- 
tracted by low things that we ought to provide higher 
education. There is a very large majority who, despite 
their toil, poverty, and petty worlds, strive honestly to 
do the best they know, to live clean lives, and to shun 
the haunts of vice. These are longing for higher and 
richer worlds than they have, and it is the State's duty 
to supply them with the material for these. It is en- 
couraging to see that already some efforts are making in 
this direction. A few of the larger cities have arranged 
courses of evening lectures, in the public-school build- 
ings, and their efforts have been seconded by private 
liberality. All this is excellent, as far as it goes; but 
it does not go far enough. The lectures are often super- 
ficial, disconnected, and desultory, furnishing transient 
amusement rather than systematic instruction. Many 
of them deal with topics that are sufficiently dilated 
upon in the newspapers and magazines, and call for no 
intellectual effort. Besides this, there is no way of hold- 



THE OUTLOOK 267 

ing the audiences responsible for results — no examina- 
tions, oral or written, no demand for work of any sort 
on their part. Now, every educator to-day knows, or 
ought to know, that all the best education is due to self- 
effort, and that lectures are valuable only in so far as 
they evoke this. For this reason classes are always 
better than lectures. The teacher should become ac- 
quainted with his pupils individually, and endeavor to 
supply the needs of each one. In dealing with the 
breadwinners, there is no agency so beneficial as per- 
sonal sympathy, clear of all condescension. " I am one 
of you " is the " Open sesame " for all doors. 

The truth is, there ought to be in every city ward, 
and in every country village a People's University, con- 
sisting of three parts, (1) a Manual Training School 
and Polytechnic Institute, in which instruction should 
be given in all the arts; (2) a College, which, eschewing 
authority, sectarianism, and all the mediaeval rags and 
symbols, to which most of our colleges at present cling, 
shall impart a coherent scientific culture, laying special 
stress upon those sciences which relate to the history 
and constitution of society; * (3) a Gymnasium, with 
baths, recreation-rooms, and rooms for lectures on hy- 
gienic and kindred subjects. For public lectures and 
plays, there should be a well-appointed theatre. 

All these things are already realized somewhere, and 
have only to become general, in order to meet the needs 
of the whole people. To take a single example: Thirty- 
five years ago, Mr. Quintin Hogg, a young Scotchman, 

* There should be classes in Evolution, History of Culture, the Circle 
of the Sciences, Sociology, Economics, Comparative Philology, Art, Re- 
ligion and Politics, Philosophy, Psychology, with more special classes in 
the different sciences, literatures, languages, etc. 



268 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

fresh from Eton, started the " Pioneer Institute for 
Technical Education," in the lowly form of an evening 
" ragged school " for boys. For the last twenty years 
it has occupied the " Polytechnic," a stately building 
in Kegent Street, in the heart of fashionable London. 
The following quotations are from a Times article 
printed in a report for 1892. " What differentiates the 
Polytechnic from others [institutes] is the elaborate sys- 
tem of technical instruction which is open to its mem- 
bers. These members, it may be said, are admitted on 
payment of a subscription of 3s. [72 cents] per quarter, 
which entitles them to the use of the library, social 
rooms, gymnasium, etc., and admission to all the enter- 
tainments, while for the technical classes mere nominal 
rates have to be paid. 

" The classes are of two kinds, science and art classes, 
which are held in connection with the Department at 
South Kensington; and industrial classes, which are in- 
dependent, but which are more or less formally related 
to the City and Guilds of London Institute of Technical 
Instruction and also to the London Trades' Council. 
The Industrial classes, again, are subdivided into classes 
of mechanics and into ' practical trade classes,' for ap- 
prentices and young workmen, and it is these last which 
are the special feature of the Institute. Among them 
we find classes for various branches of engineering, for 
cabinet-making and carpentry, including such subordi- 
nate departments as the making of staircases and hand- 
railing; we find classes in wood and stone-carving, in 
tailors' cutting, in sign-writing, and in practical watch 

* The present writer spent an evening in the Polytechnic in 1894, and 
aaw Mr. Hogg among his boys. He will never lose the impression left 
by that evening. 



THE OUTLOOK 269 

and clock-making; classes in carriage-building, in print- 
ing, in land-surveying and levelling, in plumbing and 
tool-making, and many other trades. In all these cases 
it is a condition that no one is to be admitted who is 
not already engaged, say as an apprentice, in the trade; 
for the managers of the Institute see how important it 
is that they should not incur the hostility of the London 
artisan organizations by turning out imperfectly-trained 
and amateurish workmen to compete with them in the 
market. 

" The wonder is that young men can be found who 
care to spend their evenings in doing much the same 
work that they have been employed upon all day; but 
such, unquestionably, is the case, and the class-rooms 
are well-filled with lads making engines, carving wood, 
shaping bricks, or learning the best method of cutting 
out cloth. They are led partly by the genuine desire 
of learning, and partly by the wish to better themselves; 
for example, a young plasterer, who as yet knows only 
the plainer elements of his craft, comes to the Poly- 
technic to learn modelling and cornice-moulding, and 
when he has learnt his lesson, he, perhaps, emigrates to 
America and finds himself able to earn something like 
four times the wages which he has been earning as a 
simple plasterer in London. In the engineering-room, 
where there is a certain amount of machinery worked by 
a central gas-engine, a dozen young men may be seen 
profoundly interesting themselves in the forming of a 
screw, or in adapting some roughly cast bolt to the re- 
quired purpose, and the room is full of iron lathes and 
other machines, every detail of which has been made and 
finished on the spot by the boys. 



270 THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 

" The variety of the classes is very great indeed. The 
results are eminently satisfactory, if we can judge from 
the success of the Polytechnic pupils in the different 
technical examinations, for they always stand at the 
head." (Pp. 22-24.) 

In a separate building is the Polytechnic School of 
Art. "The syllabus comprises: Free-hand and model 
drawing; practical geometry and perspective drawing in 
chalk from the cast, ornament and figure, also from foli- 
age, flowers, and other natural objects; painting in mono- 
chrome from the round, figure, and ornament; oil and 
water color painting from copies, drapery, natural 
objects, &c. Special attention is given to modelling and 
casting of the separate parts of the human figure, the uses 
of mouldings, panels, pilasters, and capitals as applied to 
the industrial arts. A designing and sketching club has 
also been established in connection with the school, with 
monthly exhibitions of students' work, in designing, 
modelling and painting." (P. 44.) 

There are " Polytechnic Holiday Trips " to Norway, 
Madeira, Switzerland, the Ardennes, Morocco, and even 
to America. The fares are made as low as possible. The 
" Fare for the Norway round journey, including all ac- 
commodation, £8.5s." [$40.08] . " Nearly 600 undertook 
the trip." " This hardly sounds like a description of 
holiday arrangements for working men, but truth is 
stranger than fiction." (Pp. 47 sq.) 

Further on, the Eeport tells us: " At the present time 
(1892) the members' roll contains about 3,500 names, 
and there are besides about 14,000 attending classes or 
in some way connected with the Institute. The limit 
of age for members is sixteen to twenty-five, but those 



THE OUTLOOK 271 

over twenty-five can be admitted as honorary members 
on payment of a double fee. There is no limit of age 
for those merely joining classes. The subscription for 
young men between the ages mentioned is 3s. a quarter, 
or 10s. 6d. [$2.52] yearly. . . . 

" The expenditure during the last financial year ex- 
ceeded £34,000 [$170,000], of which £24,000 [$120,000] 
was received in fees from members and students. The 
deficit on the working was for many years, up to 1889, 
made up by Mr. Hogg personally, but since then he has 
been relieved of a portion of the burden and the Insti- 
tute placed on a more permanent basis. 

" In this wise. In 1853 Parliament created a board 
to superintend the administration of charitable and edu- 
cational endowments all over Great Britain, and in 1883 
a further Bill was passed by which the old London 
charities were consolidated and placed under the control 
of the aforesaid board of Charity Commissioners. A 
large income— upwards of £100,000 [$500,000] per an- 
num, mainly derived from endowments of ancient stand- 
ing, the objects of which had lapsed — was thus made 
available for the purposes laid down in the Act. About 
£60,000 [$300,000] per annum were allocated to the 
advancement of technical and social education. 

" How all this bore fruit, and how the Eegent Street 
Polytechnic came to be accepted as a model for nearly 
a baker's dozen of similar institutions now springing 
up all over the Metropolis, may perhaps be more fitly 
described by an independent writer. . . . He says 
that, ' as a matter of fact, very thorough investigation 
was made by the Board with the view to discover the 
best way to promote a technical instruction that would 



272 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

benefit the lower rather than the middle classes. Insti- 
tutions at home and abroad were studied. ... As a 
result, the commissioners concluded that in England 
only the richer and middle classes would go to day tech- 
nical schools, and that night schools for apprentices and 
young people of the working classes should be sup- 
ported. . . . They were convinced that for the young 
working men of the Metropolis it was highly desirable 
that the gymnasium, the swimming-bath, athletic games, 
and careful physical training should be provided. . . . 
And thus they had reasoned themselves into the ac- 
ceptance of Mr. Hogg's Polytechnic as the most com- 
plete and desirable form of technical school for the 
poorer classes of London. They determined to take 
his school as a model, and to promote the establish- 
ment of a series of similar institutes throughout the 
Metropolis.' 

" In accordance with these provisions, the Charity 
Commissioners have secured an endowment of £3,500 
[$17,500] per annum for the Polytechnic. This en- 
dowment, increased by another £1,000 per annum from 
Mr. Hogg and £1,000 from another source, meets about 
one-half the annual deficit; £4,000 [$20,000] per an- 
num has still to be raised until such time as the London 
County Council devote to technical education some por- 
tion of the £163,000 [$815,000] granted them by Par- 
liament for that purpose.* . . . Mr. Hogg has also 
made over the buildings, fittings, etc., to a governing 
body nominated by the Charity Commissioners, by the 
School Board for London, and by himself and his co- 
trustees." (Pp. 53 sq.) 

* This lias since been done. 



THE OUTLOOK 273 

The Report closes with these words: 

" Such, in brief, is the story of the Polytechnic; from 
a pioneer meeting of thirty-two it has gone on increas- 
ing to many thousands. Even if the place had to be 
closed to-morrow it has done a truly national, nay, an 
international work, for the lusty growth of the Eegent 
Street Polytechnic is sending forth its branches like a 
mighty oak, not only into all parts of England, but 
also of America and other parts of the world, including 
the Far East. 

" Such Institutes are the greatest possible antidotes 
to intemperance and vice of every kind; they provide 
healthy physical recreation and amusement for the 
leisure hour; they help to make a young man a better 
citizen, and a more capable worker in the battle of life; 
and, above all, they afford facilities and encouragement 
to follow out a life made useful in benefiting others, 
besides opening up to many a young heart the highway 
to lasting happiness." 

There is no need to apologize for this long quotation. 
It shows, on the one hand, how much can be done by 
one earnest man, and on the other, how a great nation 
can learn from the work of such a man. What Great 
Britain has done, and is doing, the United States can 
surely do, and even on a more liberal scale. It is to be 
noted that the British Polytechnic Institutes include 
two of the three departments which should be found in 
our People's Universities — a Technical School, and a 
Gymnasium. The third department is perhaps the most 
necessary. 

If space permitted it would be desirable to give ac- 
counts of other night-universities in Great Britain and 
18 



274 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

elsewhere, of the London Working Men's College, at 
which Professor Huxley gives some of his best lectures, 
of the Universites Populaires, which are springing up in 
every arrondissement of Paris, and in many other cities 
of France, and so on; but perhaps enough has been said 
to show that the technical and higher education of the 
breadwinners is no mere impracticable chimera, but 
something which might easily be brought about by the 
efforts of a few earnest men. In regard to the Popular 
Universities of France, there is one thing especially 
deserving of notice: they have been started and car- 
ried on, as missionary work, by the professors and teach- 
ers in the public universities and schools of the nation.* 
The State, however, is now taking notice of them, and 
will in time, no doubt, make them part of the national 
system of education. And this brings us to 

(6) The Teachers. When one considers what im- 
provement has been made in the teaching personnel of 
the United States in the last fifty, and especially in the 
last twenty, years, one feels ungracious in making any 
criticisms or suggesting any extensive reforms. And 
yet, it must be said, such reforms are necessary. Our 
teachers yet require two things: (1) a much more pro- 
found education than they now receive; (2) a much 
deeper, and more unselfish interest in their work than 
most of them now have. If ever we are to have the 
teachers that the nation needs, Teaching must become a 
liberal profession, alongside Law and Medicine. Those 
who intend to pursue it must take a full college (culture) 
course, before entering the School of Pedagogy, and 

*They were roused to this largely by the infamy accruing to the 
nation from the "Dreyfus Case." 



THE OUTLOOK 275 

such a school they must all enter and go through.* 
Normal Schools were a necessity in their day, and they 
have done much good work; but they do not meet our 
present needs. The education they give is too narrow, 
too superficial, and too strictly professional to insure, 
or even to make possible, true culture, which teachers re- 
quire above all things. A professionally trained teacher, 
without a background of culture, is a mere pedant, who 
can never communicate a love for study, or awake the 
highest interests in the souls of his pupils. But it is 
not enough for teachers to have culture; they, of all 
people, must be endowed with the missionary spirit. 
The teacher who does not feel himself, or herself, an 
apostle with an important human mission, but looks 
upon the teaching profession as a mere means of mak- 
ing a living, had better seek some other occupation; 
and the same thing may be said of the members of all 
the liberal professions. The physician and the lawyer 
who labor merely to enrich themselves, and not that 
health and justice may prevail, have no right to claim 
a place in these. If the teachers of the nation, with a 
due sense of their power and importance, would, with- 
out hope or desire for material reward, form themselves 
into an association for the higher education of the bread- 
winners, as the teachers of France are doing, and each 
devote a couple of evenings a week to the work, they 
would soon elevate the culture of the whole people, and 
remove the worst dangers that threaten society. Pov- 

* Up to recent times the school-masters in Scotland had all to be col- 
lege graduates (M.A.). Hence the high status of popular education in 
that country and the practical ability of its people. It is said that six- 
tenths of all the officials in the British Empire are Scotchmen. It waa 
a great thing for Scotland that the country school-masters could prepare 
boys for college. See the stories of Ian Maclaren and Barrie. 



276 THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

erty, vice, and degradation would, in large measure, dis- 
appear, giving place to well-being, virtue, and nobility. 
There is no more patriotic work than this; for it is not 
amid the thunders of the battle-field, where men slay 
their fellow-men, that the noblest civic laurels are won, 
but in the quiet school-room, where devoted patriots, men 
and women, combine to slay misery, meanness, and cor- 
ruption. When will our teachers be ready for this? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

As it is obviously impossible to give here anything like 
a complete Bibliography of Educational Literature, the 
following list contains only such works as I have used 
in compiling the present book. 

Abelard, P.: Ouvrages Inedits (Cousin), 1836. 

Abelard, P.: Opera hactenus seorsim Edita (Cousin), 1849- 
59. 

^schylus: Prometheus, Oresteia. 

Aristophanes: Clouds. 

Aristotle: Ethics, Politics, Metaphysics. 

Babees Book (The) (Furnival) : Publications of the Early 
English Text Society. 

Baldwin, J. M.: Mental Development in the Child and in 
the Eace. New York, 1897. 

Bartholomai, D. Fr.: Joh. Friedr. Herbart's Psedagogische 
Schriften. Langensalza, 1890. 

Bigg, Charles: The Christian Platonists of Alexandria. 
New York, 1886. 

Boetius, A. M. S.: Philosophies Consolationis Libri Quinque 
(Peiper), 1871. 

Boulger: History of China, 3 vols. London, 1881-84. 

Bowen, H. C: Froebel and Education through Self-Activ- 
ity. New York, Scribners, 1898. 

"Brothers of Sincerity:" Encyclopaedia. Calcutta, 1842. 

Bussell, F. W.: The School of Plato. London, 1896. 

Compayre, J. G.: Abelard and the Origin and Early His- 
tory of Universities. New York, Scribners, 1898. 

Compayre, J. G.: A History of Pedagogy. Boston, 1895. 



278 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Dante Alighieri: Convivio, De Monarchia, Divina Com- 

media. 
Darmesteter, James: The Zend-Avesta, in Sacred Books of 

the East (Introduction to 2d Edition). 
Davidson, Th.: Aristotle and the Ancient Educational 

Ideals. New York, Scribners, 1899. 
Davidson, Th.: Rousseau and Education According to 

Nature. New York, Scribners, 1898. 
De Garmo, Ch.: Herbart and the Herbartians. New York, 

Scribners, 1896. 
Delitzsch, Fr.: Die Entstehung des aeltesten Schriftsys- 

tems. Leipzig, 1896. 
Denifle, P. H.: Die Universitaten des Mittelalters, bis 1400. 

Berlin, 1885. 
Denzinger, PL: Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum. 

Wiirzburg, 1895. 
Deussen, P.: Das System des Vedanta. Leipzig, 1883. 
Deutsch, Em.: The Talmud, in Literary Remains. New 

York, 1874. 
Deutsch, S. M.: Peter Abalard, ein kritischer Theologe 

des zwolften Jahrhunderts. Leipzig, 1883. 
Dieterici, Fr.: Die Philosophie der Araber in X Jahrhun- 

dert n. Chr. Leipzig, 1876, 1879. 
Dieterici, Fr.: Der Streit zwischen Thier und Mensch. 

Berlin, 1858. 
Dieterici, Fr.: Der Darwinismus in zehnten und neunzehn- 

ten Jahrhundert. Leipzig, 1878. 
Dill, Samuel: Roman Society in the Last Century of the 

Western Empire. London, 1898. 
Drummond, Henry: The Ascent of Man. New York, 1894. 
Drummond, James: Philo Judaeus and the Alexandrian 

Philosophy. London, 1888. 
Elser, K.: Die Lehre des Aristoteles iiber des Wirken 

Gottes. Minister, 1893. 
Frazer, R. W.: A Literary History of India. New York, 

1898. 
Froebel, T. W. A.: Works. (See Bowen's Froebel, pp. 197- 

201.) 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 279 

Frothingham, A. L.: Stephen Bar Sudaili the Syrian Mys- 
tic. Leiden, 1884. 
Geddes, Pat. and Thomson: The Evolution of Sex. London, 

1889. 
Geddes, W. D.: The Phaedo of Plato. London, 1863. 
Gladstone, W. E.: Juventus Mundi. London, 1869. 
Gobineau, J. A. de: Les Religions et les Philosophies dans 

l'Asie Centrale. Paris, 1866. 
Goethe, J. W.: Faust. 
Grote, G.: History of Greece. 

Hallam, H.: Literary History of Europe. Boston, 1854. 
Harnack, A.: Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte. Freiburg, 

im B., 1888, 1890. 
Hatch, E.: The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon 

the Christian Church. London, 1892. 
Haureau, B.: De la Philosophie Scolastique. Paris, 1850. 
Hegel, G. W. F.: Philosophie der Geschichte. Berlin, 1832. 
Heracliti Ephesii Reliquse (By water). Oxford, 1877. 
Herbart. See Bartholomai. 
Herodotus: History (Movtrat). 
Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days. 
Hinsdale, B. A.: Horace Mann and the Common School 

Revival in the United States. New York, Scribners, 

1898. 
Hughes, Th.: Loyola and the Educational System of the 

Jesuits. New York, Scribners, 1892. 
Huxley, T. H. : Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews. New 

York, 1871. 
Jastrow, M.: The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. Bos- 
ton, Ginn, 1898. 
Jebb, R. C: Homer: An Introduction to the Iliad and the 

Odyssey. Boston, Ginn, 1887. 
Josephus, Flavius: Works (Whiston). Edinburgh, 1867. 
Jourdain, A.: Recherches Critiques sur l'Age et l'Origine 

des Traductions Latines d'Aristotle. Paris, 1843. 
Kuhn, A. F. F.: Die Herabkunft des Feuers. Berlin, 1859. 
Laurie, S. S.: John Amos Comenius. Cambridge, 1899. 
Laurie, S. S.: Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education. 

London, 1895. 



280 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Lecky, W. E. H.: History of European Morals, from 

Augustus to Charlemagne. New York, 1869. 
Lenormant, F.: The Beginnings of History. New York, 

1883. 
Locke, John: Some Thoughts Concerning Education. New 

York, 1890. 
Loyola, Ign.: Exercitia Spiritualia. New York. 
Lutoslawski, W.: The Origin and Growth of Plato's Logic. 

London, 1897. 
Mann, Mary: Life and Works of Horace Mann. Boston, 

1865. 
Martineau, James: The Seat of Authority in Religion. 
Miiller, D. K.: Kirchengeschichte. Freiburg in B., 1892. 
Miiller, F. M.: History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. 

London, 1860. 
Miiller, F. M.: Lectures on the Science of Language (1st 

Series). New York, 1862. 
Miiller, F. M.: Theosophy or Psychological Religion. New 

York, 1862. 
Necker de Saussure, Mad.: Education Progressive, ou 

Etude du Cours de la Nature Humaine. Paris, 1836-38. 
Noldeke, Th.: Geschichte des Qorans. Gottingen, 1860. 
Pestalozzi, H.: Ausgewahlte Werke (F. Mann). Langen- 

salza, 1885. 
Petrus, Lombardus: Sentential. 

Picavet, F.: Gerbert, un Pape Philosophe. Paris, 1897. 
Pica vet, F.: Roscelin Philosophe et Theologien. Paris, 

1896. 
Picavet, F.: Abelard et Alexandre de Hales, Createurs de 

la Methode Scolastique. 
Plato: Republic. 
Porphyry: Elffayvyfj. 
Preger, W.: Geschichte der deutschen Mystik in Mittel- 

alter. Leipzig, 1893. 
Preger, W.: The Mind of the Child. New York. 
Quick, R. H.: Essays on Educational Reformers. New 

York, 1890. 
Quintilianus: De Institutione Oratoria. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 281 

Rawlinson, G.: Origin of the Nations. London, 1887. 
Rawlinson, G.: The Five Monarchies of the Ancient East- 
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Remusat, Ch.:. Abelard. Paris, 1845. 
Renan, E.: Averroes et l'Averroi'sme. Paris, 1869. 
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Mittelalter. Berlin, 1875, 1877. 
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London, 1882. 
Rosmini-Serbati, A.: The Ruling Principle of Method 

(Mrs. Gray). Boston, 1887. 
Rosmini-Serbati, A.: Psychology (Davidson). London, 

1884. 
Sayce, A.: Fresh Light from the Monuments. London, 

1890. 
Sayce, A.: Lectures on the Religion of Ancient Babylonia 

and Assyria. London, 1888. 
Sayce, A.: The Babylonians and Assyrians. London, 1893. 
Sayce, A.: The Egypt of the Hebrews. London, 1895. 
Scheffel, V.: Ekkehard. Leipzig, 1872. 

Schrader, E.: The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Tes- 
tament (Whitehouse). London, 1885, 1888. 
Schmidt, K.: Geschichte der Psedagogik. Kothen, 1874, 

1883. 
Schurer, E.: A History of the Jewish People in the Time 

of Jesus Christ. New York, Scribners, 1891. 
Seailles, G.: Leonard de Vinci. Paris, 1892. 
Shirreff, E. A. E.: Life of Froebel. London, 1887. 
Siebeck, H. : Untersuchungen zur Philosophie der 

Griechen. Halle, 1873. 
Smith, G.: The Chaldaean Account of Genesis. London, 

1876. 
Smith, W. R.: The Prophets of Israel. London, 1897. 
Smith, W. R.: The Religion of the Semites. Edinburgh, 

1889. 
Spencer, H.: Education: Education, Moral and Physical. 

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Spiegel, F.: Eranische Alterthumskunde, Leipzig, 1871-78. 



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Spiers, B.: The School System of the Talmud. London, 

1899. 
Steinschneider, M.: Die hebraischen Uebersetzungen dea 

Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetsoher. Berlin, 

1893. 
Steinschneider, M.: Die Arabischen Uebersetzungen aus 

dem Grieschischen. Leipzig, 1897. 
Stockl, A.: Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters. 

Mainz, 1864-66. 
Strassburger, B. : Geschichte der Erziehung und des Unter- 

richts bei den Israeliten. Stuttgart, 1884-88. 
Talanao, S.: L'Aristotelismo nella Scolastica. Siena. 
" Theologie des Aristoteles " (Dieterici). Leipzig, 1883. 
Tocco, F.: L'Eresia nel Medio Evo. Firenze, 1884. 
Van den Gheyn: L'Origine Europeenne des Aryas. 
Villari, P.: Saggi di Storia, di Critica e di Politica. Firenze, 

1868. 
Wellhausen, J.: Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels. Ber- 
lin, 1883. 
Wellhausen, J.: Israelitische und Judische Geschichte. 

Berlin, 1895. 
West, A. F.: Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools. 

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White, A. D.: History of the Warfare of Science with 

Theology in Christendom. New York, 1898. 
Windisehmann, Fr.: Zoroastriche Studien. Berlin, 1853. 
Zeller, Ed.: Die Philosophie der Griechen in ihrer his- 

torischen Entroicklung dargestellt. Leipzig, 1874 sqq. 



INDEX 



Abelard, P., 160 sqq. 

Abraham, 31 n. 

Abu '1 Feda, 130 

Achilles, 91 

Advance in education, 224 sqq. 

iEschylus, 24 

Agni, 58, 61 

Ahura Mazda, 67 sq. 

Akkad, 32 

Al Azhar (university), 164 n. 

Albertus Magnus, 174 

Alexandrian schools, 116 

Al Farabi, 134 

Alfred, King, 168 

Al GhazzalT, 147 

" Alice in Wonderland," 239 

Al Kindi, 134 

Andersen, Hans C, 261 n. 

Angro-Mainyus, 69 

" Animals vs. Man," 139 

Anselm, 160 

Antioch (city), 131 

Antioch College, 247 n., 253 n. 

Apollinaris Sidonius, 127 

" Apostles' Creed," 125 

Apperception, 233 

Aquaviva, CI., 185 



Arab character, 130 
Arab philosophers, 134 
Arabic translations, 134 
Ariel, 11 

Aristophanes, 95, 103 n. 
Aristotle, 8 n., 9 n., 14, 103 and 

n., 132, 134, 168, 174, 177, 190, 

199 n., 231 n. 
Aristotle's Dialogues, 103 n. 
Arnold of Brescia, 162 
Arts of savages, 22 
" Arya," 55 

Aryan education, 55 sqq. 
Aryans, 56, 58 sqq. 
Ashur, 50 
Asoka, 65 n. 
Assyria, 27, 47 sqq. 
Asur, 47, 67, and n., 68 
Athenagoras, 119 
Athletics, 98 n. 
Augustine, 126, 256 n. 
Avendehut, J. (Ibn Dawud), 

165 
Avesta, 70 

"Babees Book," 225 
Babylonia, 47 sqq. 



284 



INDEX 



Babylonian superstition, 51 
Bacon, Francis, 184, 190 
Bacon, Koger, 188 
Baldwin, J. M., 18 n., 192 n., 

218 
Barbarian education, 24 sq., 

78 
Barrie, J. M., 275 n. 
Barsumas, 131 
Bar Sudaili, 134 n. 
Bartholomai, D. Fr., 232 
Beautiful, the, 16 
Bede, the Venerable, 128 

and n. 
Behistun inscription, 69 n. 
Benedict, St., 127 sq. 
Berkeley, Bishop, 206 
Bernard, St., 160 
" Beth-hammidrash," 78, 83 
Big-g, Ch. (" Christian Platon- 

ists "), 116 sqq., 119 sqq., 123 
Boetius, 128, 168 
Bologna University, 169 
Bonifatius, 152 sq. 
Bonnet, Ch., 223 
Boston Latin school, 244 n. 
Boulger ("Hist, of China"), 

44 n. 
Bowen, H. C. ("Froebel"), 

235 
Brahmanism, 58 sqq. 
Breadwinners' education, 262 

sqq. 
" Brothers of Sincerity," 135 

sqq. 
Bruno, Giordano, 177 
Buddhism, 44, 65 sqq. 
Bureau of Education, 261 



Bussell, F. W. ("School of 

Plato"), 101 n. 
Byron, G. G., 67 



Cabanis, 195 n. 

Cain and Abel, 25 

Calasanzio, Father, 186 

Caliban, 11 

Calvin, J., 180 

Cambyses, 73 n. 

Carvilius, Sp., 109 

Cassiodorus, M. A., 128 

Castes, 27, 59 

" Catechetical School " of 

Alexandria, 118 sqq. 
" Categorical Imperative," 223 
Cato, M. P., 109 
Chaldsea, 32, 37 
Charles the Great, 149 sqq^ 
Chateaubriand, 223 
"Child Study," 253, 256 
China, 41 sqq. 
Chinese education, 41 sqq. 
Chinese ethics, 41 
Chlodowech, 151 and n. 
" Christian Schools," 186 
Church, origin of, 57 
Chwolsohn, D., 151 and n. 
Cicero, M. T., 110 
Civic education, 75 sqq. 
Clement of Alexandria, 118, 

121, 123 
Columba, St., 151 
Comenius, J. A., 191 sqq. 
Compayre, G., 191 and passim 
Conder, C. E., 32, 35 
Confucius, 41, 44 



INDEX 



285 



" Congregation of the Breth- 
ren of St. Charles," 186 

Consciousness, 11 

Contemporary Review, 18 

Convention, 99 

Copernican astronomy, 177 

Counter-Reformation, 173 

Cousin, V., 161 

Crusades, 165 

Cynics, 103 n. 

Cyprus, 50 

Cyrus the Great, 50 sq. and n., 
74 

Dabney, C. W., 255, 262 
Dames' schools, 246 
Dante, 8 n., 175 n. 
Darius L, 69 and n. 
" Dark Ages," 129 
Darmesteter, James, 69 n., 70 

n. 
Davidson, Th. ("Aristotle"), 

61; ("Rousseau"), 209; 

("Rosmini "), 213 n. 
De Garmo, Ch. ("Herbart"), 

232 
Delitzsch, Fr., 27 n., 32, 55 
Demia, Father, 186 
Denifle, P. H., 166 n. 
Denzinger, H. (" Enchiri- 
dion "), 123 n., 156 
Descartes, R., 184, 195 sq., 219 
Desire, 3 
Deussen, P. (" System des 

Vedanta"), 64 n., 65 n. 
Atayvyfi, 102 
" Didaetica Magna " (Come- 

nius), 193 



Dieterici, Fr., 135 sq. 

Dill, Samuel, 105, 118, 124, 127 

Diodorus Siculus, 48 

" Dionysius the Areopagite," 

157 
Drummond, H., 2 sq., 228 
Drummond, J., 116 



Edessa, 131 
Education, 1, 78 
Education, division of, 13 
Education, history of, 1 
Education for subordination 

and for freedom, 2 
Egypt, 27, 37 sqq. 
Egyptian education, 37 
Egyptian ethnology, 30 n. 
Eighteenth century, 207 sqq. 
Elam, 68 and n. 
Elser, K. (" Wirken des arist. 

Gottes "), 103 n. 
Emerson, R., 16 n. 
" Emile " (Rousseau), 210 

sqq. 
England, education in, 255 n. 
English revolutions, 144, 207 
Epheboi, 98 
Epictetus, 112 
Epicureanism, 104 n. 
Epitaph on Roman matron, 

108 
Erasmus, D., 177 
Eriugena, J. S., 157 and n. 
Esoteric and exoteric, 103 n. 
Essences, 19 sqq. 
Exegesis (Jewish), 79 
Ezekiel, 48 



286 



INDEX 



" Fair-and-Goodness," 94 

Families of peoples, 29 

Fate, 92, 99 

Feeling, 4 

Feeling, desiderant, 10 

Feeling, substantial, 4 

Fenelon, Card., 206 

Fetich, 19 

Fire, 22 n., 26 

Fire-worship, 58, 69 

" Fons Vita?" (Ibn Gabirol), 

81 
France, teachers of, 274 sq. 
Frazer, J. G. ("Golden 

Bough "), 22 n. 
Frazer, K. W. (" Lit.-Hist. of 

India"), 58, 59, 61 
Frederick II., 165, 167 
Froebel, F. W. A., 235 sqq. 
Frothingham, A. L., 137 
Froude, J. A., 173 

Galilei, G., 177 

Gathas, 70 

Geddes and Thomson, 9 n. 

Geddes, W. D., 92 n. 

Gerbert (Pope Sylvester II.), 

159 
Gerhard of Cremona, 165 
German tribes, 149 sqq. 
Gioberti, V., 181 n. 
Gladstone, W. E., 92 n., 93 
Tvwais, 123 

Gobineau, Comte de, 147 
Gcethe, J. W., 15 n., 105, 124, 

148, 164, 171, 207, 257 n. 
Good, The, 16 
Gosche, R., 45, 130 



Gray, Maria, 240 n. 
Greek education, 86 sqq. 
Gregory the Great, 127 
Gregory Thaumaturgus, 121 
Grote, G., 101 n. 
Grotius, H., 202 
Gundissalinus, Dom., 165 
Gymnastics, 94 

Hades (Sheol), 92 n. 

Haggada and Halacha, 80 n. 

" Hagiographa," 80 n. 

Hall, G. S., 260 n. 

Hallam, H., 190 

Hamlet, 257 n. 

Harnack, A., 118, 120, 123 n., 

128, 148, 153, 156, 158 
Harran, 131 and n. 
Harvard College, 244 n. 
Hatch, E., 123 n. 
Haureau, B., 103 n., 161 
Haymo, 155 
Hebrews, 77 sqq. 
Hegel, G. W. F., 101 n., 222 
Hellenes, 87 

Hellenistic education, 114 sqq. 
Heraclitus, 102 n. 
Herbart, F. H., 232 sqq. 
Herodotus, 70 sqq., 73 n., 74 n. 
Hesiod (" Theogony "), 57 n.; 

("Works and Days"), 89 
Hieroglyphic Writing, 32 
Hijrah, 133 

Hindu character, 58 sqq. 
Hindu philosophy, 60 
Hinsdale, B. A. (" Horace 

Mann "), 245 sqq., 250 n. 
Hittites, 30 n., 32, 35 



INDEX 



287 



Hogg-, Quintin, 267 sqq. 

" Home of the Fathers," 61 

Homeric Greeks, 91 sq. 

Homeric poems, 88 sq. 

Homme], Fr., 37 

Horace, 109 

Hraban, Maur, 154 

Hughes, Th. (*« Loyola "), 181 

sqq. 
Human education, 112 sqq. 
Hume, David, 206, 219, 222 
Hunger and love, 1, 20 
Huxley, T. H., 5, 6, 274 
Hyksos, 47 
Hypothesis, 15 n. 

Ibn, Gabirol (Avicebron), 81, 

147 
Ibn Rushd (Averroes), 165 
Ibn Sina (Avicenna), 134 
Ibn Tufail (Abubacer), 147, 

210 n. 
Ideas, 101 
Ihne, W., 105 
Imitation, 18 
Immortality, 76 
India, 27 

Individualism, 100 
Instinct, 18 
" Intellection," 241 
Intelligence, rise of, 13 sqq. 
Iran, 66 sqq. 

Irish monks, 129, 150 sqq. 
Isidore of Seville, 128 
Islam, 130 sqq., 157 sq. 
Israelitish exiles, 68 

Jackson, A. V. W. ("Zoro- 
aster"), 68 n. 



" Janua Linguarum Reser- 
ata " (Comenius), 193 

Jastrow, M., 50 

Jeremiah, 54 

Jerome, 126 

Jesuit education, 181 sqq. 

Jewish education, 77 sqq. 

Joel, M., 147 

John of Salisbury, 162 

Johnson, Samuel, 17 n. 

Josephus, Fl., 69 n. 

Joshua ben Gamla, 83 

Josiah, 78 

Jourdain, A., 166 n. 

Judaism, its central con- 
cepts, 86 

Juventus Mundi (Gladstone), 
92 n., 93 

Kant, Im., 101, 217 sqq., 222 

sqq., 231 
Kc&aptm, 102 
Kethubim, 80 n. 
Kindergarten, 192, 235 sqq. 
Kindergarten poems, 261 n. 
Kirjath-sepher, 53 
Knight, Anne, 252 
Knox, John, 178, 180 
Kuhn, F. F. A., 25 n. 

La Salle, Father, 186 
Latin, 109 sq., 178 
Latin fathers, 126 
" Law " (The), 78, 80 n., 116 
Lecky, W. E. H., 112 
Leibniz, G. W., 189 
Lessing, G. E., 173 
Letters, introduction of, 91 
and n. 



288 



INDEX 



" Liberal Arts," 117, 127, 153 

Liutpert, 155 

Locke, John, 189, 195, 197 sqq., 

219, 226 
Loyola, Ig., 181 sqq. 
Luther, M., 176, 17S sq., 254 
Lutoslawski, V., 102 n. 

" Ma'ad," 142 

Macaulay, T. B., 105 

Mackenzie, 207 

MacLaren, Ian (John Wat- 
son), 275 

Magi, 67 sqq., 78 and n. 

Maintenon, Mde. de, 206 

Manhood examination, 98 

Mann, Horace, 244, 247 sqq., 
254 

Marcus Aurelius, 112 

Margoliouth, 31 n. 

Martianus Capella, 127, 153 

Massachusetts Bay educa- 
tion, 244 sqq. 

Mathematics, 103 

Mazdeism, 68 sqq. 

Mede=Persian, 73 n. 

Medes, 67 sqq. 

Mediaeval education, 148 sqq. 

Median empire, 73 

Medo-Persia, 66 sqq. 

Melanchthon, Ph., 178 sq. 

Menander, 112 

Metempsychosis, 63 

Microscope, 52 

Mills, L. H. ("Avesta"), 70 
n., 73 n. 

Modern education, its ten- 
dencies, 177, 188 sqq. 

Monolatry, 77 



Monotheism, 77 
Montaigne, Mich, de, 177, 210 
Moore, Thomas, 228 
Muhammad, 132 sq., 158 
Miiller, D. K. (" Kirchen- 

geschichte "), 131 sq., 159 
Miiller, F. Max, 51 n., 57 n., 59 

n., 68 n. 
Muslim education, 130 sqq. 
Muslim universities, 164 sq. 
Mysticism, 134, 150, 156 sq., 

158 sqq. 

Names, 20 sq. 

Naples (university), 167 

Nature, 12 n., 99 sq., 175 sq., 

181, 209, 210 n. 
Necessitjr, 99 sq. 
Necker de Saussure, Mde., 

243 and n. 
Needs of education, 255 sqq. 
Nestorius, 132 
New education, its aim, 229 
Newman, J. H., 228 
Nicene Creed, 125 
Nineveh, 50, 68 
Nisibis, 131 sq. 
Noldeke, Th., 133 
Nominalism, 160 sq. 
Normal schools, 251 
Norsemen, 167 
Notker Labeo, 159 

Oberlin College, 253 n. 
Odo of Auxerre, 155 
Odyssey, 109 
Omar Khayyam, 257 n. 
" Orbis Sensibilium Pictus " 
(Comenius), 193 



INDEX 



289 



Oriental religions, 51 
Origen, 118, 121, 123 
Ormazd, 68 
Orosius, 168 
Outlook (The), 254 
Oxford University, 168 

"Palace School," 153 
Panizzi, G., 18 
Pantaenus, 118 
Pantheism, 236 
Paris University, 169 
Parmenides, 195 n. 
Paschasius Ratpert, 155 
Patrick, St., 150 
Patristic education, 124 n. 
Pedagogy, school of, 274 
Pelasgians, 87 
Penitential psalms, 54 n. 
People's universities, 267 
Period of Charles the Great, 

149 sqq. 
Persia, 66 sqq. 
Persian character, 70 sq. 
Persian Wars, 99 
Personality, 76 and n. 
Personality, discovery of, 101 
Pestalozzi, H., 229 sqq. 
Pestalozzi's followers, 231 sq. 
Peter the Lombard, 16 n., 162 

and n. 
Peter the Venerable, 165 
Pharisees, 80 
Philo, 116 

Philosophy, rise of, 99, 103 
Phoenician education, 55 
Phoenix, 91 
Picavet, F., 162 n. 



Picture-writing, 28 

Pietschmann ("Phoenicia"), 
55 

niartv, 123 

Plato, 18 n., 67, 101, 102 n., 103 
n„ 104 

Plotinus, 123 

Polytechnic (London), 268 
sqq. 

Porphyry, 135, 161, 164 

Post-Aristotelian philosoph- 
ers, 104, 115 sqq. 

" Practical " education, 259 

Praeconius Stilo, L. A. E., 109 

Precept, 19 

Preger, W., 150, 156 

Preyer, W. ("Die Seele des 
Kindes"), 192 

Priests and laity, 27 

Priests, originators of sci- 
ence, 28 

Prometheia, 73 n. 

Prometheus, 25 and n. 

Protagoras, 100, 219 

Ptah-hotep (" Aphorisms "), 
39 

Purgation, 94 

Purification, 102 

Puritan education, 244 sqq. 

Pythagoras, 103 n. 

Qoran, 130, 133, 145, 164 sq. 
Quintilian, 110 

Rabelais, 177 

" Ratio Studiorum " (Jesu- 
its), 185 
Rawlinson, G., 37, 48, 50 



290 



INDEX 



Reading, 29 

Realism, 160 sq. 

Reason, 114, 175 sq., 209 

Redemption, Vedantic, 63 sqq. 

Reformation (The), 173 sqq. 

Religion, 19 

Remusat, Ch., 161, 170 n. 

Renaissance, The, 173 sqq. 

Renan, E., 165 n. 

Reuter, H. (" Aufklarung im 

Mittelalter"), 175 
" Robinson Crusoe," 210 
Rogers, J. E. Thorold, 207 
Rollin, 206 

Roman Christianity, 125 
Roman education, 105 sqq. 
Romans vs. Spartans, 106 
Roscellinus, 160 
Rosmini-Serbati, A., 1, 9 n., 

239 sqq., 254 
Rousseau, J. J., 209 sqq., 219, 

222, 226, 254 

Sabbath, 32 

Sacrifice, 21 n., 27 

Sacrificers, 27 

Sadducees, 80 

Salerno University, 168 

Sargon, 68 n. 

Savage education, 18 sqq. 

Savages, 11 

Sayce, A., 38, 47 n., 49, 50, 53, 

69 n. 
Scepticism, modern, 206 
Schelling, 222 
Schiller, Fr., 192, 256 n. 
Schmidt, K. (" Gesch. der 

Psedagogik ") , 45 



Scholastic method, 162 
Scholasticism and Mysticism, 

156 sqq. 
Schrader, E., 19 n., 53 n., 68 n., 

69 n. 
Schrader, O., 57 n. 
Schriftgelehrte (Scribes), 28 
Schiirer, E., 115 sq. 
Science, beginnings of, 28 
Science vs. Theology, 175 
Scott, Sir Walter, 239 
Scottish schools, 180 
Scotus Eriugena, J., 1 
" Scuole Pie," 186 
Seailles, G., 174, 189 sqq. 
Semites vs. Aryans, 89 n. 
Semitic character, 45 sqq. 
Semitic education, 45 sqq. 
Semitic gods, 88, 90 n. 
Semitic languages, 45 
Seneca, L. An., 112 
Servatus Lupus, 155 
Seth, Andrew, 1 
Sevigne, Mde. de, 200 
Shakespeare, W., 9 n., 11 n., 15 

n., 194 n. 
Shalmanezer, 67 
Shem (meaning), 19 
Shirreff, E. A. E., 235 
Siebeck, H., 101 n. 
Sin, 54 
Sippara, 53 
Slavery of savages, 22 
Smith, George (" Babylonian 

Genesis "), 57 
Smith, S. F., 18 
Smith, W. Robertson, 21 n., 46 

n., 48, 55, 116 



INDEX 



291 



" Social Contract," 210 
Society of Jesus, 182 sqq. 
Socrates, 101 and n., 217 sqq. 
Solonian oath, 98 
Soothsayers, 27 
Sopherim, 53 and n., 78 
Sophists, 101 and n. 
Spencer, H., 1, 8 n., 253 n. 
Spenser, Edm., 14 
Spiegel, Fr., 67, 69 n., 73 n., 

74 n. 
Stages of education, 13 sqq. 
State, origin of, 27 sqq. 
Steinschneider, M., 134 nn., 

165 n. 
Stoics, 103 n., 104 n. 
" Studium generale," 166 sqq. 
Subject vs. object, 101 
Sudras, 59 
Sumir, 32 
Supernatural beginnings of 

humanism, 114 sqq. 
Symbol-making faculty, 16 
'S,vij.$o\ou, 15 n. 
Symbols, 19 
Syrian church and schools, 

131 

Talamo, Sal. (" Aristotelismo 
nella Scolastica "), 169 n. 

Talmud, The, 79 

Taoism, 44 

Tennyson, Alfred, 12 n., 61 n., 
93 n., 218, 257 n. 

Tertullian on education, 126 

Theodore of Tarsus, 151 

" Theology " of Aristotle, 135, 
142 



Theology vs. Science, 175 

®ewpia, 102 

Thomas Aquinas, 163, 174 

Tocco, Felice, 150 

Tool-using faculty, 16 

"Torah," 78 

Town, 26 n. 

Tragedy and comedy, origin 
of, 89 n. 

Translations from Arabic, 165 

Trendelenburg, Ad., 101 n. 

True, the, 16 

Turanian education, 30 sqq. 

Turanian gods, 88 

Turgot, 254 

Tylor, E. B. (" Primitive Cult- 
ure "), 12 n., 17 n., 19 n., 21, 
46 n. 

Tyrrhenians, 87 

Ulfilas, 152 n. 
Universals, 103 n. 
Universe, the, is social, 8 sq. 
Universitas, 166 
Universites populaires, 274 
Universities, mediaeval, 164 
sqq. 

Van den Gheyn, 57 n. 
Varro, 110 
Veda, 1, 59 sqq. 
Vedanta, 60, 63 
Vernacular, the, 180 
Vinci, Lionardo da, 187 sqq. 
Voltaire, 222 

Von Eicken, H., 124, 148, 150 
sq. 



292 



INDEX 



Walafried Srabo, 155 

" Waqf " schools, 227 

Washing-ton's university, 262 

Werenibert, 155 

West, Andrew ("Alcuin"), 

153 
Westcott, B. F., 19 n., 118 
White, A. D., 175, 226 
Windischmann, Fr., 69 n. 
Wolf, Chr., 219 
Women, 40 

Working men's college, 274 
Worth, 94; (paean to), 15 



Writing, 28 sq., 32 sqq. 
Wynfrith (Bonifatius), 152 

Xenophon (" Cyropaedia "), 70 

Yahweh, 31 n., 47 

Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), 68 

sqq. 
Zeller, Ed. (" Philosophie der 

Griechen "), 103 n. 
Zeus, 90 n. 
Zodiac, 52 
Zwingli, U., 180 



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NOTICES OF THE SERIES. 

' ' Admirably conceived in a truly philosophic spirit and executed with unusual 
skill. It is rare to find books on pedagogy at once so instructive and so interest- 
ing. ... I hope to read them all, which is more than I can say of any other 
series." — William Preston Johnston, Tulane University. 

' ' The Scribners are rendering an important service to the cause of educa- 
tion in the production of the ' Great Educators Series. ' ' ' '—Journal of Education. 

' ' We have not too many series devoted to the history and the theory of edu- 
cation, and the one represented at the present moment by the two volumes before 
us promises to take an important place— a leading place - amongst the few we 
have. ' ' — London Educational Times. 



ARISTOTLE. 



The whole of ancient pedagogy is Professor Davidson's subject, the 
course of education being traced up to Aristotle, — an account of whose 
life and system forms, of course, the main portion of the book, — and 
down from that great teacher, as well as philosopher, through the decline 
of ancient civilization. An appendix discusses "The Seven Liberal Arts," 
and paves the way for the next work in chronological sequence,— Professor 
West's, on Alcuin. The close relations between Greek education and 
Greek social and political life are kept constantly in view by Professor 
Davidson. A special and very attractive feature of the work is the cita- 
tion, chiefly in English translation, of passages from original sources 
expressing the spirit of the different theories described. 

' ' I am very glad to see this excellent contribution to the history of educa- 
tion. Professor Davidson's work is admirable. His topic is one of the most 
profitable in the entire history of culture."— W. T. Harris, U. S. Commissioner 
of Education. 

" ' Aristotle ' is delightful reading. I know nothing in English that covers 
the field of Greek Education so well. You will find it very hard to maintain 
this level in the later works of the series, but I can wish you nothing better 
than that you may do SO. ' ' — G. Stanley Hall, Clark University. 

ALCUIN. 

Professor West aims to develop the story of educational institutions 
in Europe from the beginning of the influence of Christianity on education 
to the origin of the Universities and the first beginnings of the modern 
movement. A careful analysis is made of the effects of Greek and 
Roman thought on the educational theory and practice of the early 
Christian, and their great system of schools, and its results are studied 
with care and in detail. The personality of Alcuin enters largely into the 
story, because of his dominating influence in the movement. 

' ' Die von Ihnen mir f reundlichst zugeschickte Schrift des Herrn Professor 
West Uber Alcuin habe ich mit lebhaftem Interesse gelesen und bin Uberrascht 
davon in Nord America eine so eingehende Beschaftigung mit unserer Vorzeit 
und eine so ausgebreitete Kenntniss der Literature liber diesen Gegenstand zu 
linden. Es sind mir wohl Einzelheiten begeeinet an denen ich etwas auszu- 
setzen fand, die ganze Auffassung und Darstellung aber kann ich nur als sehr 
wohl gelungen und zutreffend bezeichnen." — Professor Wattenbach, Berlin. 

' ' I take pleasure in saying that ' Alcuin ' seems to me to combine careful 
scholarly investigation with popularity, and condensation with interest of de- 
tail, in a truly admirable way. ' '—Professor G. T. I.add, of Yale. 



THE GREAT EDUCATORS 



ABELARD. 



M. Compayre, the well-known French educationist, has prepared in this 
volume an account of the origin of the great European Universities 
that is at once the most scientific and the most interesting in the English 
language. Naturally the University of Paris is the central figure in the 
account ; and the details of its early organization and influence are fully 
given. Its connection with the other great universities of the Middle 
Ages and with modern university movement is clearly pointed out. 
Abelard, whose system of teaching and disputation was one of the earliest 
signs of the ming universities, is the typical figure of the movement; and 
M. Compayre has given a sketch of his character and work, from an 
entirely new point of view, that is most instructive. 

' ' ' Abelard ' may fairly be called the founder of university education in 
Europe, and we aave in this volume a description of his work and a careful 
analysis of his character. As the founder of the great Paris University in the 
thirteenth century the importance of his work can hardly be overestimated. 
The chapter devoted to Abelard himself is an intensely interesting one, and the 
other chapters are of marked value, devoted as they are to the origin and early 
history of universities. . . . The volume is a notable educational work."— 
Boston Daily Traveler. 

LOYOLA. 

This work is a critical and authoritative statement of the educational 
principles and method adopted in the Society of Jesus, of which the 
author is a distinguished member. The first part is a sketch, biograph- 
ical and historical, of the dominant and directing personality of Ignatius, 
the Founder of the order, and his comrades, and of the establishment and 
early administrations of the Society. In the second an elaborate analysis 
of the system of studies is given, beginning with an account of Aquaviva 
and the Ratio Studiomm, and considering, under the general heading of 
"the formation of the master," courses of literature and philosophy, of 
divinity and allied sciences, repetition, disputation, and dictation ; and 
under that of "formation of the scholar," symmetry of the courses pur- 
sued, the prelection, classic literatures, school management and control, 
examinations and graduation, grades and courses. 

" This volume on St. Ignatius of ' Loyola and the Educational System of the 
Jesuits, ' by the Rev. Thomas Hughes, will probably be welcomed by others be- 
sides those specially interested in the theories and methods of education. 
Written by a member of the Jesuit Society, it comes to us with authority, and 
presents a complete and well - arranged survey of the work of educational 
development carried out by Ignatius and his followers." —London Saturday 
Review. 

FROEBEL. 

Friedrich Froebel stands for the movement known both in Europe 
and in this country as the New Education, more completely than any 
other single name. The kindergarten movement, and the whole de- 
velopment of modern methods of teaching, have been largely stimulated 
by, if not entirely based upon, his philosophical exposition of education. 
It is not believed that any other account of Froebel and his work is so 
complete and exhaustive, as the author has for many years been a student 
of Froebel's principles and methods not only in books, but also in actual 
practice in the kindergarten. Mr. Bowen is a frequent examiner of kin- 



THE GREAT EDUCATORS 






dergartens, of the children in them, and of students who are trained to toe 
kindergarten teachers. 

' ' No one, in England or America, is fitti ' to give a more sympathetic or lucid 
interpretation of Froebel than Mr. Courthope Bowen. . . . Mr. Bowen's book 
will be a most important addition to any library, and no student of Froebel can 
afford to do without it." — Kate Douglas Wiggin, New York City. 

HERBART. 

In this book, President De Garmo has given, for the first time in the 
English language, a systematic analysis of the Herbartian theory of ed- 
ucation, which is now so much studied and discussed in Great Britain 
and the United States, as well as in Germany. Not only does the 
volume contain an exposition of the theory as expounded by Herbart 
himself, but it traces in detail the development of that theory and the 
additions to it made by such distinguished names as Ziller, Story, Frick, 
Rein, and the American School of Herbartians. Especially valuable will 
be found Dr. De Garmo's careful and systematic exposition of the prob- 
lems that centre around the concentration and correlation of studies. 
These problems are generally acknowledged to be the most pressing and 
important at present before the teachers of the country. 

' ' Some one has said there can be no great need without the means of supply- 
ing such need, and no sooner did the fraternity realize its need of a knowledge 
of the essentials of Herbart than Dr. De Garmo's excellent work on ' Herbart and 
the Herbartians,' by Scribner's Sons of New York, appeared, a book which, 
costing but a dollar, gives all that the teacher really needs, and gives it with 
devout loyalty and sensible discrimination. It is the work of a believer, a de- 
votee, an enthusiast, but it is the masterpiece of the writer who has not for- 
gotten what he owes to his reputation as a scholar in his devotion to his 
master." — Journal of Education. 

THE ARNOLDS. 

No book heretofore published concerning one or both of the Arnolds 
has accomplished the task performed in the present instance by Sir 
Joshua Fitch. A long-time colleague of Matthew Arnold in the British 
Educational Department, the author — leaving biography aside — has, with 
unusual skill, written a succinct and fascinating account of the important 
services rendered to the educational interests of Great Britain by the 
Master of Rugby and his famous son. The varied and successful efforts 
of the latter in behalf of a better secondary education during his long 
official career of thirty-five years as Inspector of Training Schools, no 
less than the notable effect produced at Rugby by the inspiring example 
of Thomas Arnold's high-minded character and enthusiastic scholarship, 
are admirably presented. Whatever in the teaching of both seems likely 
to prove of permanent value has been judiciously selected by the author 
from the mass of their writings, and incorporated in the present volume. 
The American educational public, which cannot fail to acknowledge a 
lasting debt of gratitude to the Arnolds, father and son, will certainly wel- 
come this sympathetic exposition of their influence and opinions. 

" The book is opportune, for the Arnoldian tradition, though widely diffused 
in America, is not well based on accurate knowledge and is pretty much in 
the air. Dr. Fitch seems the fittest person by reason of his spiritual sympathy 
with the father and his personal association with the son, to sketch in this brief 
way the two most typical modern English educators. And he has done his work 
almost ideally well within his limitations of purpose. . . . The two men 
live in these pages as they were. ' ' — Educational Review, New York. 



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